Life annuities are products sold by insurance companies to protect retirees against the risk of outliving their money. A life annuity is a once-in-a-lifetime purchase with lifelong consequences. Requiring retirees to buy life annuities with their individual accounts has advantages and...

Social Security is in excellent financial shape over the next decade; it is running surpluses while the rest of the federal government is running deficits. If the Trustees' "best estimates" for the next 75 years hold true, Social Security funds will fall short of benefit costs in about 2042. In that...

Declining home values, lost savings, and corporate pressures to cut pension costs are undermining retirement security for seniors. At the same time, job losses, pay cuts, and mortgage foreclosures are jeopardizing workers' dreams of a secure retirement. The recent stock market collapse has...

Social Security is best known as a retirement program, but it is also an important source of income security for families with children, including families of servicemembers who risk their lives in military service. When a member of the armed forces dies, his or her family may qualify for Social...

The terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, draws attention to two long-standing social insurance programs that pay cash benefits to families when a breadwinner dies. Workers' compensation pays benefits if a worker is killed at work. Social Security pays families whether or not the worker's...

In January 2009, 51.1 million people, or about one in every six U.S. residents, received Social Security benefits. The benefits are financed by dedicated taxes on earnings paid by workers and employers, by income taxes that upper income beneficiaries pay on part of their Social Security...

The 2014 Trustees Report updates projections about the future finances of Social Security's two trust funds. The Disability Insurance (DI) trust fund, which is legally separate from the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund, will require legislative action soon to ensure that all...

This article offers a brief summary of the workers' compensation and Social Security Disability Insurance programs. Information highlighted includes the differences between the two programs' types and terms of coverage. It compares the differing patterns in workers' compensation and Social...

Workers' Compensation: Benefits, Coverage, and Costs, 2007 is the twelfth in a series begun by the National Academy of Social Insurance to provide the only comprehensive national data on this largely state-run program. The study provides estimates of workers' compensation payments - cash and...

Workers' Compensation: Benefits, Coverage, and Costs, 2003 is the eighth in a series begun by the National Academy of Social Insurance to provide the only comprehensive national data on this largely state-run program. The study provides estimates of workers' compensation payments - cash and...