Because most workers receive health benefits from their employers, retirement often disrupts health insurance coverage. Some employers offer health insurance to retirees, but many firms are cutting retiree health benefits by passing more costs to retirees or eliminating benefits altogether. Few...

Today, the average retirement age is 63. If people continue to retire at 63, they are going to face a severe decline in living standards at retirement for a number of reasons. First, at any given retirement age, Social Security benefits will replace less of pre-retirement earnings as the Normal...

In 1998, the Swedish Parliament passed pension legislation that transformed Sweden's Social Security system to a Notional Defined Contribution (NDC) plan 3/4 that is, a defined contribution plan financed on a pay-as-you-go basis. In addition, the legislature established a second tier of funded...

Employer-provided pensions play an important role in assuring a comfortable retirement. In 1992, they accounted for about 20 percent of the total wealth of middle-income households aged 51-61, second only to Social Security. However, many workers still lack pension coverage. After increasing...

This brief explores how the shift from defined benefit to defined contribution pension plans might affect bequests and thereby consumption and saving. Bequests can occur under two different types of circumstances: (1) individuals plan to leave an inheritance for their heirs (an intended...

Over the long term, stocks have earned a higher rate of return than Treasury bonds. Therefore, many recent proposals to reform Social Security include a stock investment component. In evaluating these proposals, the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Actuary(OACT) has generally...

For years, researchers have been puzzled by why so few people purchase fixed, immediate, lifetime annuities for their retirement portfolios. Rational theories have been proposed, but none can fully explain the small size of the actual market. Very recently, academics have turned their attention...

The financial crisis has sparked proposals to reform the retirement income system. One component of such a system could be a new tier of retirement accounts. These accounts would augment declining Social Security replacement rates for low-wage workers and provide a buffer of security for middle-...

Transforming Social Security's delayed retirement credit into a lump-sum payment rather than an increased monthly payment would likely encourage more workers to defer retirement and benefit claiming. The idea is thus worthy of further exploration. Several important design issues, however, must...

As baby boomers approach retirement, individuals and policymakers are increasingly concerned about retirement income security. Thanks to dramatic advances in life expectancy over the last century, today's typical 65-year old man and woman can expect, on average, to live to ages 81 and 85...