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About 54% of full-time adult workers are in a retirement plan: EBRI
Wed, Nov 09, 2011
"White, more highly educated, higher-income, and married workers are more likely to participate than their counterparts," the EBRI's October 2011 Issue Brief said.
Industry Views
$300 Billion, Up for Grabs
Cogent Research's new 2012 Assets in Motion study can help you understand and benefit from the rising flow of money from qualified plans to rollover IRAs.
Burton Malkiel Talks About Efficient Markets
In this video sponsored by Vanguard, Burton Malkiel, Princeton professor and author of "A Random Walk Down Wall Street," talks with RIJ editor Kerry Pechter about what "efficient market" means to him. The 10th edition of "A Random Walk" has just been published.
New Income Solutions for Long Retirements
With the numbers of people over age 100 growing rapidly, there is an equally growing need for advisors to consider an array of retirement income solutions.
Annuity Issuers Slowly Enter The Digital Age
Annuity issuers are making a concerted effort to implement and promote paperless document delivery services.
401(k)s: They’re Not (Necessarily) Just for Employees Any More
A growing number of 401(k) plan sponsors, retirees, record keepers and regulators want retirees to stay in their plans well into, or even straight through, retirement, PIMCO has found.
The Future Of Online Customer Feedback Has Arrived
TIAA-CREF’s TC Listens website is an innovative new medium for obtaining client feedback online.
TIPS for Retirement Investing in the ‘New Normal’
TIPS can preserve purchasing power, provide systematic income and offer the assurance of a government guarantee for retirees depending on income from their investments.
Firms Back Variable Annuity Product Launches With Aggressive Online Marketing Campaigns
With variable annuity sales down, firms are intensifying online product marketing campaigns to reach more prospective investors.
Found in Translation
Annuity issuers are reaching out to non-English-speaking investors through websites written in Spanish and Asian languages, according to Corporate Insight.
Behavioral Economics and Retirement Investing
PIMCO and its Allianz affiliates recently sponsored a new study, “Behavioral Finance and the Post-Retirement Crisis.” PIMCO Retirement Product Manager Tom Streiff explains how the study’s findings can foster the development of successful retirement income products.
Annuity Issuers Embracing Social Media One Tweet At A Time
A growing number of annuity issuers are using creative approaches on Twitter to reach new audiences online.
Roth IRA Conversion Promotions Are All The Rage Online
Many firms have launched engaging online sales campaigns focusing on the Roth IRA conversion opportunities that will be available in 2010.
Annuity Firms Turn Their Focus To Online Client Security
Annuity firms introduced enhanced online security measures in 2009, but they remain laggards in the financial service industry.
Should Annuity Firms Care About Social Media?
The annuity industry has been slow to adopt social media. But given the industry’s target audiences, does it matter? Download an excerpt from the report "Social Media: Trends and Tactics in the Financial Services Industry."
Marketing Online Education To Advisors
Our latest research shows that dynamic displays, such as Flash interfaces, offer firms engaging new ways to present and market online educational content to advisors.
Industry Views are special reports that are sponsored and independent from RIJ's editorial content.
DATA CONNECTION
Social Security
Send the Social Security Statement to Everyone On One Day!
Wed, Oct 12, 2011
The associate director of the Center for Retirement Research wants financial services companies to fund a revival of the delivery of Social Security statements to working Americans. Cost: $55 million. Benefit: Priceless.
Actuaries suggest automatic adjustments for Social Security
Wed, Sep 07, 2011
"Automatic adjustments to benefits, taxes, or the normal retirement age could solve Social Security’s long-range financing problem permanently and automatically—and restore public confidence in the system," says the American Academy of Actuaries.
Micro-Pensions in Central America
Tue, Aug 23, 2011
You've heard of micro-credit: those mini-loans to female entrepreneurs in emerging markets. Now a micro-pension movement is underway, and one of the first pilot projects starts next month in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Part I of a two-part article.
Actuary to Congress: Raise SS retirement age
Wed, Jul 13, 2011
Even in 1940, however, men who reached age 65 had an average life expectancy of 12.7 years—meaning that half lived longer than that. (Albus Dumbledore was nearly 116 years old when Severus Snape killed him.)
GAO paints a broad view of America's retirement challenge
Tue, Jul 05, 2011
A new report from the General Accounting Office shows, among other things, that delaying Social Security can be cheaper than taking it early and making up the difference with an income annuity.
Heritage Foundation Suggests Means-Testing for Social Security, Medicare
Wed, Jun 01, 2011
Under the conservative think-tank's proposal, a new optional, auto-enrolled savings plan would start in 2014. Under this plan, 6% of each worker’s income would go in a retirement savings plan that the worker owns and controls.
Social Security trustees issue annual report
Wed, May 18, 2011
The Social Security and Disability Insurance trust funds may be a figment of accounting, but the funds' trustees continue to calculate the changes in payroll tax rates and/or benefit levels that would keep the funds solvent until the last surviving Boomer reaches age 121.
How to solve Social Security’s solvency problem
Wed, Apr 06, 2011
Alicia H. Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, made her recommendations in an op-ed piece in the New York Times this week.
Don’t Subsidize ‘Middle-Age Retirement’
Wed, Mar 16, 2011
The author argues that his fellow liberals shouldn’t oppose an increase in the minimum age for claiming Social Security.
Government-Sponsored Annuity Proposed
Wed, Mar 02, 2011
Investing in Treasury bonds to fund a retirement annuity would make individual Americans and the nation more financially secure, claim academics Terrance Odean (above) and Henry T.C. Hu.
Pension Debate Roils Japan
Mon, Feb 28, 2011
In January, the ruling party suggested that the public pension should be funded with payroll deductions, and that there should be a taxpayer-funded guaranteed minimum benefit of ¥70,000 ($860) per month for the poor.
Poland’s pension makeover offers a cautionary tale
Wed, Jan 26, 2011
In the 1990s, Poland reformed its Social Security-type system and introduced personal accounts. Now they’ve got chaos.
A Death in the Family, Part I
Wed, Jan 19, 2011
For the very old and their families, preservation of life often competes with preservation of finances. Here's how one California family coped with an elderly mother's death. (The first of two parts.)
Boomers May Regret Payroll Tax Holiday: Op-Ed
Tue, Dec 28, 2010
If made permanent, a new Social Security ‘payroll tax holiday,’ reducing the ‘match’ employers pay from 6% to 4% of salary, will drop the solvency of the program 14 years, from 2037 to 2023, two policy experts say.
Social Security Seeks to End Free Loans
Wed, Dec 15, 2010
“The agency is changing its withdrawal policy because recent media articles have promoted the use of the current policy as a means for retired beneficiaries to acquire an ‘interest-free loan,’” according to the agency.
Average Dutch Retirement Age Stays Level
Wed, Nov 24, 2010
The current minority government has agreed to increase the official retirement age to 66 in 2020, but has not yet passed any legislation.
75-Year Financing Plan Would Stabilize Social Security: NASI
Wed, Nov 17, 2010
Covering the projected long-term shortfall facing Social Security would require revenue increases equal to slightly more than 2% of taxable payroll over the next 75 years, according to the National Academy of Social Insurance.
An Alternative Deficit Reduction Plan
Wed, Nov 17, 2010
Similar to the Bowles-Simpson proposals, the Rivlin-Domenici plan would lower income tax rates while eliminating most deductions and credits. It would replace the home mortgage and charitable contribution deductions with 15% refundable credits, and cut health care expenditures by $75 billion a year.
The $1.1 Trillion Tax Hike
Wed, Nov 17, 2010
The "Zero Plan" proposed by the co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform last week calls for the end of $1.1 trillion in tax breaks. The co-chairs would save Social Security through a combination of reduced benefits and higher taxes.
Dinosaur Cloning Will Precede Social Security Fix: Survey
Thu, Nov 11, 2010
. . . and 77% of Americans with children at home say their child is more likely to catch a foul ball in the seats at a baseball game than cash a Social Security check.
U.S. Retirement System Rates a ‘Low C’: Mercer
Thu, Oct 21, 2010
Analysts at Mercer say the U.S. could improve its private pension system by, among other things, requiring that participants convert at least part of their retirement savings to an income stream.
Your Loophole Is My Noose
Wed, Aug 11, 2010
Tax breaks, when seen as passive spending programs, are a form of government waste. So raising taxes might shrink the size of government. Or not.
To Offset Potential S.S. Cuts, Save 10 Percent More
Wed, Aug 04, 2010
A hypothetical 45-year-old couple should save an extra $90,000 before they retire. At age 55, the same couple year-old should begin saving an extra $82,900, suggests economist Laurence Kotlikoff.
How Social Security Can Make Up for Lost Pensions
Wed, Jul 14, 2010
Under my plan, the SSA would tell people their benefit at a specific retirement age (either an earliest age or a "normal" age). Then it would show a simple set of penalties or bonuses for withdrawing money or depositing it with Social Security.
