Posts Tagged ‘retirement planning’
Retirement Planning: Reality Bites for Generation Xers
Generation Xers are struggling more than other age groups with retirement planning. Hit particularly hard by the recession, they are juggling the twin needs of saving for retirement and the immediate needs of raising a family and other major financial obligations such as paying a mortgage. The retirement planning attitudes of those between 30-44 [...]
Most Workers Don’t Make Good Use of 401(k)s
The 401(k) system has come under a lot of criticism since the financial crisis hammered workers’ nest eggs. About two thirds of employers believed employees had ‘adequate’ retirement and investment planning resources. At the same time only 15% thought employees “made good use” of the resources and only 22% thought employees made [...]
How Family Ties Shape Retirement Success
Practical retirement advice needs to include the fact that we live in the real world and have diverse needs and challenges. One factor that contributes to large differences in retirement planning and needs is a person's family situation. MetLife's Mature Market Institute, in partnership with the Society of Actuaries, recently studied how [...]
How Will Variable Annuities Evolve as Boomers Seek Retirement Income?
Retail investors trust big advisory firms less than they did four years ago and are questioning the value of the advice they receive. The increase in both market volatility and interest from the Baby Boomers in generating retirement income should be a slam-dunk for variable annuities. And unlike mutual funds and ETFs, sales of the products are [...]
“New School” Retirement Planning for Today’s Baby Boomers
There's a new book e-book on the market, Bifurcated Retirement, The New Approach for Today's Baby Boomers. This book examines the Baby Boomers' unique retirement planning challenges regarding savings, investments, inflation, longevity, and long-term care needs, and delivers a two-stage retirement program not found in the traditional wealth [...]
Smart Tax Planning for the Gap Years
Many families seek financial planning advice specifically for retirement. But if they wait too long, they miss an important tax-planning opportunity. A great strategy is to take advantage of the time between retirement and Social Security at age 70, the so-called gap years. With some planning for this gap, you can move income into the lower tax [...]
Few Understand Longevity when Planning Retirement
Despite increasing life expectancy in the U.S., more than half of retirees and pre-retirees underestimate how long they may live, according to a survey from the Society of Actuaries (SOA). A separate report released by the Insured Retirement Industry on Tuesday noted that women are particularly at risk for outliving their savings. The implications [...]
Retirement Planning Tools Evolving
Financial services firms are broadening the scope of their retirement advice tools and planning a major push to help advisors understand them. That’s the key takeaway of an industry survey by Hearts & Wallets, a research firm that tracks retirement income trends. The new tools also allow advisors to add modules that can help them with the [...]
Retirement Income Market – A Significant Growth Opportunity for Life-Annuity Insurers
The retirement income market represents a unique opportunity for insurers to realign their solutions to meet an evolving consumer need, according to a new study by Conning Research & Consulting. Life and annuity insurers have been helping individuals amass assets in preparation for retirement. At the end of 2011, for example, individual and [...]
Forty Three Percent of Americans Have No Retirement Plan
Most people have changed their expectation of retirement in planning to work past 65 or continue working after they are retired according to Catherine Collinson, president of Transamerica's Center for Retirement Studies. More than 60% agree their nest egg is not sufficient and 43% reported having to retirement strategy, in writing or not [...]
