Men and women both share retirement worries, but women’s unique life circumstances warrant greater attention in retirement planning decisions, including plan participation and investment strategies, report Bank of America’ Nevenka Vrdoljak and Susan Feng: Retire Secure Blog. …Read More
At an ERISA Advisory Council hearing for the Dept. of Labor, experts recommended including annuities in defined contribution plans to hedge against longevity risk. Olivia S. Mitchell, a Wharton School professor, supported a default annuity structure that begins payments later in life to simplify financial decisions for older participants.…Read More
Unlocking retirement potential: 401(k) plans have improved retirement prospects yet many still expose retirement savers to longevity risk. Wharton Professor Olivia S. Mitchell recommends bolstering #DC plans with deferred annuities. Via PIOnline.…Read More
Defined benefit pensions often paid lifetime income streams, but many workers were not included; some companies also underfunded the plans. Defined contribution plans plus Social Security offer more Americans retirement security, explains Wharton Prof. Olivia S. Mitchell, via PlanAdvisor. …Read More
Including deferred income annuities in DC accounts can enhance retiree financial well-being, report researchers Vanya Horneff and Raimond Maurer of the Goethe University Frankfurt, and Olivia Mitchell of the University of Pennsylvania. Via ThinkAdvisor. …Read More
Anna Rappaport on the RetireSecure Blog discusses whether to take your defined contribution benefit as a lump sum or annuity: consider both near and longer-term needs.…Read More
Many American households have no retirement savings, and a majority have too little saved to fund their expected needs. Professors Richard Patterson and William Skimmyhorn look at strategies to boost retirement savings, at the RetireSecure blog.…Read More
GE plans to freeze defined benefit accruals of 20K workers and offer lump sum buyouts to 100K former employees, seeking to cut debt. This aligns GE with most larger US companies today as defined benefit pension plans grow rare, says Wharton’s Olivia S. Mitchell here. Image courtesy of…Read More
One drawback of defined contribution (DC) retirement plans is that they place the burden of making financial decisions on participants who are often ill equipped for the task. This has contributed to widespread concerns about retirement security. Will people have enough savings when they leave the workforce to afford a comfortable retirement? Will they then draw on their nest eggs efficiently while in retirement, enabling them to avoid financial ruin over an uncertain lifetime?…Read More
In the old days, many Americans had a defined benefit (DB) pension that paid them a steady guaranteed income in retirement. But the pension landscape has shifted dramatically: now more than half of all US retirement assets are in self-directed defined contribution (DC) plans, such as 401(k)s and individual retirement accounts (IRAs) – and the figures are rising. These DC plans and IRAs do offer millions the chance to build up and control their own nest eggs, but what they don’t offer is a guaranteed income in retirement. Instead, retirees must manage their nest eggs themselves and hope that their decisions – how much to save, where to invest, and how much to take out each year – and the ups and downs of the market, will permit their money to last as long as they do.…Read More
