Description: Longevity risk—the risk of outliving one’s retirement savings—is probably the greatest risk facing current and future retirees in the United States. As life expectancy increases, government programs, private pensions and various financial products will all be needed to provide retirement income over ever-longer periods of retirement. This article focuses on the optimal mix of social insurance, pensions and financial products that should be used to provide retirement income to the oldest old, here defined as those 90 and older. To be sure, Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) are already designed to provide modest, inflation-adjusted retirement benefits to all retirees. On the other hand, pensions and other forms of retirement savings are often dissipated long before people reach the esteemed status of oldest old. One approach for enhancing the retirement incomes of the oldest old would be to expand Social Se curity and SSI. Another approach would be to strengthen the protections provided by pensions and other forms of retirement savings. In particular, the private sector could be encouraged to sell more annuities and other lifetime income products, and, perhaps, the government should also get into the business of selling annuities. These are the kinds of solutions needed to ensure the oldest old face their final years with adequate economic resources.

Description: Longevity risk—the risk of outliving one’s retirement savings—is probably the greatest risk facing current and future retirees in the United States. As life expectancy increases, government programs, private pensions and various financial products will all be needed to provide retirement income over ever-longer periods of retirement. This article focuses on the optimal mix of social insurance, pensions and financial products that should be used to provide retirement income to the oldest old, here defined as those 90 and older. To be sure, Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) are already designed to provide modest, inflation-adjusted retirement benefits to all retirees. On the other hand, pensions and other forms of retirement savings are often dissipated long before people reach the esteemed status of oldest old. One approach for enhancing the retirement incomes of the oldest old would be to expand Social Se curity and SSI. Another approach would be to strengthen the protections provided by pensions and other forms of retirement savings. In particular, the private sector could be encouraged to sell more annuities and other lifetime income products, and, perhaps, the government should also get into the business of selling annuities. These are the kinds of solutions needed to ensure the oldest old face their final years with adequate economic resources.

Description: At the outset, this paper discusses the current rules governing benefit distributions from defined contribution plans in the United States and other countries. Next, this paper explains the various types of financial products that can be used to provide defined contribution plan participants with lifetime retirement income. Finally, this paper considers how distribution rules and regulations can be used to encourage retirees to take their defined contribution plan distributions in the form of annuities or other lifetime income products.

Description: A collection of essays in response to a call for essays aimed to gather perspectives, opinions and data on how to advance the state of effective retirement planning tools, products, and strategies to assist individuals, financial advisors, employers, and other stakeholders.

Description: This paper proposes a mandatory universal pension system MUPS which would be a system of fully portable IRA accounts piggy-backed on to existing Social Security withholding.

Description: This paper provides some background about demography, health and retirement summarizes how current pension laws influence the design of pension plans and the timing of retirement and looks at the optimal retirement age from the perspective of employers, government and workers.

Description: At the outset, this paper discusses the current rules governing benefit distributions from defined contribution plans in the United States and other countries. Next, this paper explains the various types of financial products that can be used to provide defined contribution plan participants with lifetime retirement income. Finally, this paper considers how distribution rules and regulations can be used to encourage retirees to take their defined contribution plan distributions in the form of annuities or other lifetime income products.

Description: Jonathan Barry Forman, J.D., is the Alfred P. Murrah Professor of Law at the University of Oklahoma College of Law.

Description: List of symposium/monograph contributors.

Description: This paper examines some of the issues threatening the current health of the Social Security System, and how all or part of the system could be replaced by a cash balance plan. From Cash Balance Symposium Monograph, M-RS02-3.