Aging and Retirement Consumer Focused Material

This webpage has links to materials that have been produced by the Society of Actuaries on aging and retirement issues with the goal of helping consumers more effectively understand and consider them. Readers are encouraged to share these links with others who may be interested. There are a number of products and services that can be used to help address retirement risks and needs.  The publications often include generic descriptions of the types of products and questions to be asked in thinking about them.  They do not identify specific organization products or recommend specific product approaches.  These materials are suitable for use by individuals, for advisors to use with clients, and for employers to give to employees.

Consumer Interest Resources

The Society of Actuaries Committee on Post Retirement Needs and Risks consumer-focused webpage houses several resources produced by the Committee and in partnership with other organizations.

Resources listed include:

• Managing Post–Retirement Risks–Strategies for a Secure Retirement (Risk Chart)
  This chart and accompanying narrative provide information for consumers and other audiences on retirement risks and strategies for managing these risks.
• Managing Retirement Decisions   
  This is a thought-provoking series of issue briefs that tackle a variety of retirement decisions with practical considerations and advice. A topic covered in the series includes lifetime income on which the Society of Actuaries has completed an extensive body of other research for retirement professionals.
• Retirement Literacy
  This is a series of briefs focused on retirement literacy issues with the goal of expanding knowledge and insight into these issues. The briefs include:
  • Retirement Health & Happiness – explores retirement from a holistic perspective looking at non-financial issues.
  • Retirement Planning from Start to Finish – looks are retirement planning and the things to consider throughout one’s career.
  • A Spending Plan for Retirement: Estimating Expenses – explores the types of expenses that may occur in the first year of retirement.
  • Retirement Planning Tools – provides a resource for better understanding retirement tools.
• Age Wise
  This is a series of infographics with concise facts on how life expectancy and other issues can impact retirement planning.

Retirement-Related Calculators and Tools

Resources include:

• Longevity Illustrator
  Developed jointly by the American Academy of Actuaries and the Society of Actuaries, the Longevity Illustrator is a tool designed to provide users with perspectives on longevity risk—information on the number of future years that users and spouses/partners might expect to live.
• Retirement Planning Tools
  The fourth brief in the Retirement Literacy series, this brief provides a resource for better understanding retirement tools.

Long-Term Care and Caregiving

The following essays and reports provide personal perspectives and thoughts on long-term care and caregiving, which can have a dramatic impact on retirement.

• Improving Retirement by Integrating Family, Friends, Housing and Support: Lessons Learned from Personal Experience
• The 65 Plus Age Wave and the Caregiving Conundrum: The Often Forgotten Piece of the Long‐Term Care Puzzle
• The Impact of Long‐Term Care Costs on Retirement Wealth Needs
• 2017 Risks and Process of Retirement: Caregiving for Older Individuals: Perspectives of the Caregiver and Caregiving Recipient
• Are CCRC’s and Senior Housing Communities a Good Choice?
• Impact of COVID-19 on Senior and Support Housing Choices

Highlights of Individual Research Topics or Themes

Understanding and Managing Post-Retirement Risks is a series of reports that highlight a particular topic within the body of work that the SOA has produced on post retirement needs and risks. Written for researchers and knowledgeable consumers, each report contains a list of tips for readers to consider on each topic. Reports include:

• Post-Retirement Risks and Related Decisions
• Shocks and the Unexpected: An Important Factor in Retirement
• How People Plan for Retirement
• Women and Post-Retirement Risks
• Retirement Experiences of People Age 85 and Over
• Family is Important to Retirement Security

Risks and Process of Retirement Survey

This biennial survey fielded since 2001 evaluates Americans’ awareness of potential financial risks in retirement, how this awareness impacts the management of their finances with respect to retirement, and how Americans are managing the process of leaving the workforce. In addition to a report with complete findings for each iteration of the survey, several key findings reports are produced that focus on chosen topics as well as providing the results at a more summarized level. Different key topics have been chosen for each survey. Knowledgeable consumers may wish to review these key findings for insight into a particular topic.  

Sightlines Project

The Society of Actuaries (SOA) was one of several sponsors on this report from the Stanford Center on Longevity (SCL). The report focuses on predictions of financial security at different life stages using pertinent findings from the earlier Sightlines report on financial security. Additional reports are available on the Sightlines website.