Description: This article is a summary of the SOA Research Institute report published in April 2023 on Megatrends Impacting the Future of Retirement Plans.

Description: The article provides a summary of key issues presented at the 2023 U.S. Living to 100 Symposium focused on the interests of retirement professionals and retirees. It provides an overview of the subjects covered. The discussion focused on the well-being of retirees and the development of the retirement system. It is focused on late-in-life issues and having the best life possible during that period. It balances technical and lifestyle issues, with an emphasis on mortality and longevity trends and influences. Some of the topics discussed include the impact of COVID, climate, housing, and age-friendly communities. The Elder Tech Symposium was merged into Living to 100 and includes discussion of a variety of technology approaches to improve lives and simplify support. The symposium recognized that the decisions needed and concerns during retirement are different later in life, particularly as people decline.

Description: Women have different resources and experiences than men in retirement, partly due to demographic and life cycle differences and partly due to societal practices. This article reviews the differences, the situation 25 years ago, and then compares the situation 25 years ago to the situation today. Some of the big long lasting issues are differences in life spans and periods of disability, differences in pay, different shares of caregiving responsibility and differences of time out of the workplace. It finds some things that have improved, but other issues that existed 25 years ago have still not been addressed. New issues have arisen. The article draws on a presentation given at the 25th anniversary of the Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER). It also focuses on the impact of COVID and the changes that have taken place in the workplace in the last few years. It provides insights into and discussions of the pros and cons of remote and hybrid work arrangements. It provides insights into issues that still need to be addressed.

Description: This article provides a perspective on the SOA’s Aging and Retirement research reports, and on the types of research that are included. The SOA does a lot of research on different retirement topics, and many people are not aware of the scope of this work. This article offers an overview of the big picture as we think about the future. The article describes longer-term challenges to the US retirement system and recent developments that have affected the system and created uncertainty. It provides an overview of what individuals have said about retirement and their view of post-retirement risks and planning in a variety of consumer research studies. It then reviews some of the research and provides information on summary reports which provide insight on the findings from multiple related research reports. It also provides information about consumer education and what is currently available and in process. It then focuses on how the SOA is helping retirement professionals understand current and expected change and discusses areas of uncertainty as we help those we serve deal with change.

Description: This article addresses challenges that arise later on in retirement years related to support systems, physical needs, and living arrangements. It highlights the "Late-in-Life Decisions Guide" published by the Society of Actuaries in 2022.

Description: Collective Defined Contribution Plans offer an option in plan design that lies somewhere between defined benefit and defined contribution plans. This is achieved by fixing the contributions to the plan, but allowing benefits to fluctuate based on experience. This article provides a basic summary of how they can be structured. There are limitations to their use in the US, but are gaining in popularity elsewhere around the globe.

Description: The SECURE Act of 2019 requires an annual disclosure to participants in defined contribution plans. The intention is to help participants understand the relationship between their account balances and the estimated retirement income—that might be provided from those balances. But the disclosure requirements lack the features needed to provide meaningful information to many participants, which can be misleading if not well understood. Consequently, this provides an opportunity for actuaries to work with retirement plan sponsors to improve the disclosures.

Description: The article first tries to determine a consensus view of what social security should accomplish and then tries to measure how well the current level of benefits succeeds in meeting these goals. Assessing benefit adequacy is an essential element in putting the overall program on a sound financing footing.