Retirement Crisis Research Articles

“Safe” Annuity Retirement Products and a Possible US Retirement Crisis

“Safe” Annuity Retirement Products and a Possible US Retirement Crisis

“Safe” Annuity Retirement Products and a Possible US Retirement Crisis

“Safe” Annuity Retirement Products and a Possible US Retirement Crisis

Beyond the Retirement Crisis Headlines: Why Employer-Sponsored Plans Are the Key to Retirement Adequacy for Today's Workers

Beyond the Retirement Crisis Headlines: Why Employer-Sponsored Plans Are the Key to Retirement Adequacy for Today's Workers

P30 Declining staff numbers and increasing workload: is there a solution?

Abstract Within the UK, there is a rapidly rising incidence of malignancies, including cutaneous cancers. Over 1 million new patients are referred to dermatology each year and a large proportion require a diagnostic or therapeutic biopsy. Dermatologists often rely on histopathology to confirm or diagnose cancers, determine margins and perform specialist testing. The increasing rates of cancers are adding significantly to the histopathology workload. According to the Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath), only 3% of departments report having adequate staff to meet clinical demand. There are a significant number of unfilled training posts and a concurrent retirement crisis, with 25% of all pathologists over 55 years old. It can take up to 15 years to train consultants, with the more experienced able to handle greater workloads. The lack of pathologists, with widespread vacancies, has a significant impact. The resulting costs to the health service of employing locums and outsourcing work have been estimated to be £27 million annually. For patients, the costs of these shortages mean delays in diagnosis and treatment. A RCPath key performance indicator advises that 80% of cases should be reported within 7–10 calendar days. Across dermatology departments, there is wide reported variation in reporting times from 1 to 28 weeks. In 2019, the longest wait, on average, was 5.8 weeks. We surveyed 60 histopathology consultants across different National Health Service trusts in England to determine the reasons behind these delays. The survey response rate was 45%. The results showed that 78% of departments have unfilled posts, 83% have employed locum staff or outsourced reporting of skin biopsies in the last 5 years and only 20% are able to meet the RCPath guidance. Additionally, almost one-quarter reported that they have had complaints or serious incidences related to delayed dermatopathology reporting. Survey comments revealed many other areas of potential diagnostic delay from sample labelling and prioritizing to prolonged laboratory processing times, unclear pathways to expedite samples and the lack of histopathology secretaries. This survey highlights the increasing workforce demands and emphasizes the need for innovative changes to avoid delays in patient care. Possible solutions to address increased workload in an understaffed environment include adequate secretarial support, increasing pathology pathway navigators who prioritize urgent cases, improving information technology services, digital slide reporting and developing artificial intelligence to screen samples. Increasing dermatopathology training and exposure to histopathology at a junior level is mandatory. Raising these issues and making them a key investment priority for the government is imperative.

DP02 (P30) Declining staff numbers and increasing workload: is there a solution?

Abstract Within the UK, there is a rapidly rising incidence of malignancies, including cutaneous cancers. Over 1 million new patients are referred to dermatology each year, and a large proportion requires a diagnostic or therapeutic biopsy. Dermatologists often rely on histopathology to confirm or diagnose cancers, determine margins and perform specialist testing. The increasing rates of cancers are adding significantly to the histopathology workload. According to the Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath), only 3% of departments report having adequate staff to meet clinical demand. There are a significant number of unfilled training posts and a concurrent retirement crisis, with 25% of all pathologists over 55 years old. It can take up to 15 years to train consultants, with the more experienced able to handle greater workloads. The lack of pathologists, with widespread vacancies, has a significant impact. The resulting costs to the health service of employing locums and outsourcing work has been estimated to be £27 million annually. For patients, the costs of these shortages mean delays in diagnosis and treatment. A RCPath key performance indicator advises that 80% of cases should be reported within 7–10 calendar days. Across dermatology departments, there is a wide reported variation in reporting times from 1 to 28 weeks. In 2019, the longest wait, on average, was 5.8 weeks. We surveyed 60 histopathology consultants across different National Health Service trusts in England to determine the reasons behind these delays. The survey response rate was 45%. The results showed that 78% of departments have unfilled posts, 83% have employed locum staff or outsourced reporting of skin biopsies in the last 5 years and only 20% are able to meet the RCPath guidance. Additionally, almost one-quarter reported that they have had complaints or serious incidences related to delayed dermatopathology reporting. Survey comments revealed many other areas of potential diagnostic delay from sample labelling and prioritizing to prolonged laboratory processing times, unclear pathways to expedite samples and lack of histopathology secretaries. This survey highlights the increasing workforce demands and emphasizes the need for innovative changes to avoid delays in patient care. Possible solutions to address increased workload in an understaffed environment include adequate secretarial support, increasing pathology pathway navigators who prioritize urgent cases, improving information technology services, digital slide reporting and developing artificial intelligence to screen samples. Increasing dermatopathology training and exposure to histopathology at a junior level is mandatory. Raising these issues and making them a key investment priority for the government is imperative.

Facilitators and barriers for successful retirement: a qualitative study.

a retirement is a major event and a life-changing transition in human life. As retirement is accompanied by new needs and roles, there is a need for adaptation. This study intended to identify facilitators and barriers to a successful retirement. this qualitative study was conducted on 22 retirees and professionals in the field of retirement. The participants included 13 retirees (9 males and 4 females), 4 about-to-retirement individuals (3 females and 1 male), and 5 experts in the field of gerontology, retirement, and social sciences. The participants were selected using the purposive sampling technique. Data analysis was performed using conventional content analysis and Graneheim and Lundman´s methods. in this study mean age of participants in the retiree group was 63.15±6.30 years. The mean age for the About-to-retirement group was 53.75*2.63 years, and their mean job experience was 29 years. Also, the expert group had an average of 15 years of experience in their field. Facilitators were classified as benefiting from social support systems, personal characteristics, and social participation. Barriers were categorized into four groups, namely worsened health status, lack of a plan and retirement crisis, socioeconomic problems, and inadequate support systems. this study considered retirement not only as a phenomenon accompanied by several psychosocial challenges but also as an opportunity for growth that various factors either facilitate or hinder. In order to promote current services, it would be helpful to consider accompanying changes and the facilitating or hindering factors of retirement adaptation. Therefore, future retirement preparation programs should consider these factors.

Replacement Rates and the Retirement Crisis

Replacement Rates and the Retirement Crisis

Emerging Retirement Crisis: When Social Security Is Not Enough

Evidence suggests a growing retirement crisis in the United States among older adults placing many of them at risk of falling into poverty. While Social Security provides income assistance to retirees, the average monthly benefit is $1,300. Among older adults nearing or in retirement, the use of public assistance programs is increasing. Using data collected by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research we examine retirement preparedness, borrowing from retirement plans, and use of social welfare programs. Findings indicate increased borrowing from retirement plans due to debt, significant differences in racial and gender groups accessing and receiving services among those 75 and older. Increasing rates of unpreparedness for retirement exist among older Americans, particularly among adults of color. An increase in the use of safety net services among older adults is occurring concurrently with severe funding reductions in social welfare programming.

BOOK REVIEW: Is There a Retirement Crisis? An Exploration of the Current Debate

1. George A. (Sandy) Mackenzie 2. Anna M. Rappaport 1. Anna Rappaport Consulting. (anna{at}annarappaport.com) <!-- --> 1. To order reprints of this article, please contact David Rowe at d.rowe{at}pageantmedia.com or 646-891-2157. Reviewed by Anna M. Rappaport Demographic trends,

Gender, and Age Discrimination and the Retirement Crisis (Case studies) |التمییز النوعی والعمری وأزمة التقاعد ( دراسات حالة )

The current study examined whether the effect of gender and age discrimination had a different effect on the retirement of men and women later, focusing on the causes of the women's retirement crisis as a type compared to men in Egyptian society. This goal has been refuted into five sub-issues: (the basic social characteristics of the retired sex, the forms of gender and age discrimination to which the sex is before and after retirement, the types of emerging roles and roles excluded by sex and age before and after retirement, the dependency status of retired sexes, and the forms of planning For gender retirement and the nature of income and expenditure management after retirement, and finally the priority of problems facing the retired gender). The study started from the analyzes of socialist feminist theory and crisis theory, using the case study method, where an intentional sample was included that included selected cases consisting of 27 men and women from the city of Minya, who retired during the five years preceding the completion of the study. In general, the study concluded that: The difference in characteristics and individual privileges between the sexes does not qualify women to achieve a safe retirement in terms of gender compared to men. The results also monitored the vulnerability of women to inequality across institutional systems (family and work) to create gender benefits in favor of men. The results also revealed that women were negatively affected by opportunities lost due to gender and age in the public and private spheres throughout the life and at retirement period. The results also confirmed the impossibility of women practicing professional roles After retirement, women then adapted negatively to retirement by creating specific stereotyped roles and a pattern of expected dependency that would not be achieved with women enjoying luxury when retiring, unlike men in school cases. As a result, a more severe retirement environment is formed for women compared to men in study cases.

Practical Applications of The Unrealistic Optimism That Threatens Retirement Security

<h3>Practical Applications Summary</h3> In <b><i>The Unrealistic Optimism That Threatens Retirement Security</i></b>, from the Fall 2019 issue of <b><i>The Journal of Retirement</i></b>, author <b>Alfred Rappaport</b> of <b>Northwestern University</b> details the retirement crisis facing Americans today. Fewer employers are offering lifetime pensions, and nearly half of American families have no retirement savings—but most Americans believe they are on track to a comfortable retirement. This unrealistic optimism comes from the fact that Americans underestimate their expenses in retirement while overestimating how much their investments will grow once they start saving. Investors often assume they will realize high rates of return in line with historical growth rates. However, they often sabotage their retirement nest egg’s potential by failing to reinvest dividends, and by investing when the market is high and selling when the market is low. Investors also often fail to factor in investment fees, inflation, and taxes. The author gives investors a reality check, providing tools that show how these factors cut into retirement savings over time. Financial advisors can use these tools to educate their clients and create retirement savings plans that are free of unrealistic optimism. <b>TOPICS:</b>Wealth management, retirement, pension funds, portfolio theory

SeLFIES: A New Pension Bond and Currency for Retirement

There is a looming retirement crisis, as individuals are increasingly being asked to take responsibility for their own retirement planning and a majority of these individuals are financially unsophisticated. They cannot perform basic compounding calculations and do not understand the impact of inflation, both critical aspects of retirement planning. Yet, these individuals are being tasked with the responsibility for three complex, interconnected decisions: how much to save, how to invest (with many additional decisions), and how to decumulate one’s portfolio at retirement. Compounding these challenges, current financial instruments and products (e.g. T-Bills, TIPs, or Target Date Funds) are risky because they focus on the wrong goal - wealth at retirement, as opposed to how much retirement income can be guaranteed to support pre-retirement standard-of-living. Moreover, annuities are complex, costly, and illiquid and seldom used. Without financial innovation and a change in the metric for measuring retirement success, many individuals will retire poor – a financially and socially undesirable outcome for any country. This paper presents an easy, quick and efficient solution for countries to address all these challenges and improve retirement security by creating and issuing an innovative new bond – SeLFIES (Standard-of-Living indexed, Forward-starting, Income-only Securities). The SeLFIES bond is a single, liquid, low-cost, low-risk instrument, easy-to-understand for even the most financially unsophisticated individual, because it embeds accumulation, decumulation, compounding and inflation-adjustments. SeLFIES is good for governments too, as the bond lowers the risk of individuals retiring poor, improves balance sheet management, and funds infrastructure. The paper also discusses key design aspects of SeLFIES to show how they can ensure longevity risk protection and hedge standard-of-living risk, a key unmanaged risk globally today. Additionally, the paper by concludes by demonstrating the universality of the SeLFIES design as well as by showing how it serves a useful purpose by becoming the “currency of retirement.”

Is There a Retirement Crisis? An Exploration of the Current Debate

Many quantitative empirical studies of retirement preparedness find that a substantial number of US households face a potential financial crisis at some point in the future. This monograph provides a critical survey of the most important and best-known of these studies, and it also examines the prospects for other countries. Studies of retirement preparedness vary in complexity and sophistication, and as a result, researchers offer a wide range of forecasts, with some warning of a severe crisis and others being more skeptical about the likely scale of the problem. This monograph appraises the quality of surveyed studies by determining how well each deals with key conceptual issues and how adequately each addresses principal risks. Going beyond the circumstances in the United States, the monograph also provides international perspective by comparing the “macro” and institutional aspects of pension and health systems in a group of eight industrialized countries, including the United States.

The Unrealistic Optimism That Threatens Retirement Security

The US is facing a retirement crisis. Almost half of all American families have no retirement savings. A disturbingly large number of investors think they are on a path toward a comfortable retirement, but they are unlikely to reach their destination due to their unrealistically optimistic growth forecasts for their retirement savings. This article examines the sources of this unwarranted optimism. First, some investors forecast savings growth rates that assume they will reinvest dividends, but they do not. Second, investors earn lower rates of returns than the mutual funds they invest in. Third, they fail to properly account for the costs associated with investing—inflation, expense ratios, and taxes. Investment professionals are very familiar with how these factors work against accumulating savings. Much less attention, however, has been directed at how overly optimistic forecasts of these factors threaten retirement security. This article examines these issues. In addition, the article shows how properly incorporating the factors into retirement plans enables retirement savers and financial advisors to make the timely changes needed to prevent a retirement nightmare. TOPICS:Wealth management, retirement, pension funds, portfolio theory Key Findings • A majority of polled workers express optimism about their ability to finance a comfortable retirement, but those who forecast an overly optimistic savings growth rates are unlikely to reach their retirement goal. • The principal sources of overly optimistic savings growth rate forecasts include bullish market return forecasts, failure to reinvest dividends, underperforming the equity funds that the investors invest in, and a failure to properly account for inflation, expense ratios, and taxes. • Prospects for achieving retirement savings targets improve with a combination of better forecasts of the factors affecting the savings growth rate, avoiding poor market timing, and lowering expense ratios with low-cost index funds.

The Impact of Nudging on Retirement Savings : A Comprehensive Review and Non-Parametric Tests

The rapid growth in aged population and life expectancy exacerbated by the substantial decline in birth rate have created a new type of crisis: retirement crisis. People and governments are not familiar with this new problem and more seriously, they are not well prepared for it. The retirement saving rate is far from an optimal level and the majority of people passively rely on hopeful growth in production population, development in technology, and aggressive spending in welfare policy. We need a more active and effective cure to circumvent the rising crisis. Nudging is a great candidate with excellent history of success for such task. The present paper aims at comprehensively reviewing prior studies on the impact of various nudges on the rates of retirement participation and contribution and providing an analytical summary of non-parametric tests in which nudging activities at the corporate and governmental levels can significantly alter the retirement savings behavior and eventually the quality of post-retirement life. Specifically, a variety of nudging skills such as automatic enrollment and informative email improve the employee participation and additional savings in retirement plans at the corporate and public levels. Nudging might be a key to turn the new crisis into a new opportunity.

Ensuring Retirement Security with Simple GLIDeS

There is a growing retirement crisis and most of the focus has been on the fact that individuals are not saving enough for retirement, may not have access to pension schemes, or are financially illiterate. More critically, assets/financial products available to investors, may not be appropriate for the typical individual saving for retirement. The goal of retirement is to try to guarantee a target level of income ideally from retirement till death. Current glide path products shift from stocks to bonds based on one’s age, and this is unlikely to achieve the goal of a secure retirement income for two reasons: traditional bonds are not safe and the glide path is goal-independent. A new bond (SeLFIES) has been proposed as the safe asset for the goal of retirement income. This paper (i) addresses the second issue of glide-path products and tests a simple rule we call GLIDeS: Goal-based, Lifetime Income-focused, Dynamic Strategy that allocates between Equities and SeLFIES based on a retirement income goal; (ii) shows how GLIDeS could dominate standard portfolio choices (60/40, TDFs etc.), along with holding SeLFIES in isolation; (iii) introduces a new way to think about intermediate retirement targets to ensure one is on a safe path to retirement; and (iv) explores implications for level of savings required to achieve a retirement goal. The paper uses historical and Monte-Carlo simulation for reasonable future equity, interest rate and inflation scenarios, and concludes with how the choice of dynamic strategy is influenced by one’s savings rate, replacement rate, risk aversion and outlook on interest rate and risky assets.

Rethinking Automated Investment Adviser Disclosure

Today, investment advisers, including robo-advisers, push dense disclosures to consumer investors who may not be able to fully comprehend their import. Tomorrow, robo-advisers and their innovative technology, if embraced by regulators and consumers, can facilitate and cultivate a trusted collaborative relationship between investor and adviser where the adviser learns from the investor and provides education tailored to the investor, helping to solve vexing consumer protection issues and lessen the impending retirement crisis. More and more of us are comfortable making decisions without human involvement and entirely through a digital interface. Despite consumers’ increasing comfort relying upon machines to direct and guide their decisions, most Americans nevertheless lack basic foundational knowledge in finance and investing. Even those Americans who are able to save for retirement lack financial sophistication and may not be able to understanding the complex products in which they are invested. Robo advice may not be the solution for these problems, as robo-advisers present a potential black box problem where the digital investment advisers may not be capable of explanation beyond the information input and advice output. In such a world, it is not only the new technology that should be questioned. The existing standards through which the new technology is regulated should similarly be explored. An understanding of potential benefits and potential harms may provide lessons that better allow us to protect consumer investors and better prepare for the so-called retirement crisis. This essay explores the parameters of the pre-existing regulatory regime as applied to a new landscape of investing with a focus on the key regulatory tool of disclosure. This short essay examines the challenges of delivering appropriate disclosures in a new world of robo-advisory advice. It suggests a reconceptualization of the aim of disclosure to capitalize on robo-advisers’ ability to truly know their clients and shift the burden of investor education from the customer to a fiduciary level adviser capable of tailoring advice and education to each investor at a level she is capable of understanding. The essay concludes with a recommendation: robo-advisers and investor collaboration via an active and iterative disclosure regime that encourages investor comprehension, understanding, and learning.

The F-Utility of Wealth: It’s All Relative

Finance theory is based on a very simple, yet critical assumption that “individuals maximize the expected utility of wealth”. However, there are three crucial elements of this simple 6-word phrase that do not really stand the test of what investors actually do and one could argue, that the incorrect use of Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) has led to the looming global retirement crisis. First, investors care about relative wealth (i.e., wealth relative to a goal) rather than absolute wealth, popularly called “Goals-Based Investing”. Second, individuals (or principals) are not always the ultimate decision makers — rather, many investment decisions are delegated to agents, which distorts behavior. Third, and most crucially, most investors do not appear to focus on utility functions, but rather seek to maximize risk-adjusted return. Instead, finance theory should start with the assumption that “investors delegate to maximize relative risk-adjusted returns.” This paper seeks to show how incorporating these three simple and completely realistic changes impacts asset pricing, asset allocation and the correct use of risk-adjusted performance measures. While the initial step requires a re-think of finance theory and models, the more urgent goal is to ensure retirement security as this new approach leads to financial innovation, better regulation and potentially better retirement outcomes.

Retire In-Home: A New Way to Use a Home to Guarantee Retirement Income

There is a growing retirement crisis and most of the focus has been on the fact that individuals are not saving enough for retirement, may not have access to pension schemes, and find it difficult to choose from a wide range of retirement products. One solution that has been considered is to improve access to Reverse Mortgages (RMs) so that individuals can convert their (possibly) single largest asset into a through-death income stream. However, current RMs are complex with constraints on who can use them, and with multiple parties to the transaction to hedge residual risks. As a result, a limited number of institutions (and that too with government support) offer such products. These challenges may have also limited the use of RMs for the typical individual saving for retirement and are unlikely to solve the larger crisis. We suggest a new approach - “Retire In-Home” (Retire through Income from one’s Home) - that leverages recently proposed tradeable instruments to improve retirement security and hedge against standard-of-living risks. These include a bond called BFFS/SeLFIES, designed to secure real retirement income for a fixed term (with potentially a second new bond, called a LIVE bond, designed to protect individuals against longevity risk if individuals do not want to purchase deferred annuities because of annuity challenges). Further, the paper also shows how a new investor segment could be tapped to expand financing for such transactions as recommended by Prof. Robert C. Merton. This paper demonstrates how Retire In-Home could simplify this market and allow even the most financially unsophisticated individual to participate in this transaction. The paper works through three cases: (a) when death is known (or a term income); (b) when longevity risk is hedged with deferred annuities; and (c) when longevity risk is hedged with LIVE Bonds. The paper concludes with extensions including accounting for up-front lumpsum payments, forward-starting contracts and even multi-occupant situations.

The Multidimensional Poverty Measure among Malaysian Employee Provident Fund (EPF) Retirees

Assessing poverty using multiple dimensions of deprivation provides a comprehensive picture of poverty. No one factor, like income or any monetary-based indicator is uniquely able to capture all of the factors that contribute to poverty. This study attempts to evaluate the multidimensional poverty measure among Malaysian Employee Provident Fund (EPF) retirees by using Alkire and Foster multidimensional poverty index to a set of deprivation dimensions. The findings indicate that around 84% of EPF retirees were identified as multidimensionally poor, meaning that they are in acute poverty. On average, poor retirees are deprived of 48% of weighted indicators. The results also show that women are more multidimensionally poor compared to men in terms of transportation, income, home ownership and education. The study discovered that Indian retirees are more deprived than other ethnic groups, followed by Malays. In this regard, it is necessary to strengthen current retirement savings institutions to reduce the impacts of the retirement crisis. The government needs to provide a Social Security system that rolls back the decline of Malaysian’s retirement savings.