Retirement Income: Risks and Strategies (Mit Press) - Softcover

Warshawsky, Director Of Retirement Research Mark J

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0262525127 ISBN 13: 9780262525121

Publisher: MIT Press, 2013

Synopsis

Strategies, products, and public policies that will help a new generation of retirees maximize income and minimize risk.

As members of the baby boom generation head into retirement, they face an economic environment that has changed noticeably since their parents retired. Most of these new retirees will not be equipped, as many in the earlier generation were, with private pension plans, early retirement options, and fully paid retiree health benefits in addition to Social Security and Medicare. Today it is increasingly left to retirees themselves to plan how to maximize retirement income and minimize risk. In Retirement Income, Mark Warshawsky and his colleagues describe strategies, products, and public policies that will help a new generation achieve financial security and income growth in retirement.

Warshawsky, a noted expert in the field who has worked in both government and private industry, analyzes two insurance vehicles, life annuities and long-term care insurance, and their capacity to protect against the extra costs arising from longevity and disability. He proposes two innovations. The first is a strategy that includes a set percentage withdrawal from a balanced portfolio, which is gradually used to purchase a ladder of life annuities. The second proposal, which includes a description of the potential choices in product design and available tax characteristics, is a product that integrates the immediate life annuity and long-term care insurance.

With Retirement Income, Warshawsky offers practical ideas based on the results of empirical investigations and analyses, which can be applied to household decision making by retirees and their financial planners and to the design of insurance products and public policy.

About this title

About the Author:

Mark J. Warshawsky is Director of Retirement Research at Towers Watson, former member of the Social Security Advisory Board, and coauthor of The Role of Annuity Markets in Financing Retirement (MIT Press).

Review:

Mark Warshawsky's contributions to retirement security span a long and prolific career in business, research, and policy. His newest collection will be invaluable to the financial advice community as well as policymakers and analysts in the retirement security field.

―Olivia S. Mitchell, Professor of Insurance/Risk Management and Business/Public Policy, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

A collection of essays that survey key issues in the theory and empirics of annuitization―who annuitizes, what are the pros and cons of annuities vs. other forms of retirement investments, how do current and potential future health statuses affect the desirability of annuitization, what kinds of product innovations have made annuities more attractive, how does tax and regulatory policy influence annuities markets? Important reading for academics, advanced students, and retirement income advisers.

―Estelle James , Professor Emeritus, SUNY, Stony Brook, Former Lead Economist, World Bank, and International Consultant on Pensions and Social Security

All retirees who have accumulated savings to support their golden years face several financial challenges, including providing for the chance of a very long life and financing potential late-life health care costs. Retirement Income outlines these challenges, then examines a number of ways in which they can be addressed. Anyone interested in lifetime financial planning, or in the financial security of the growing numbers of elderly households, will find this book a lucid introduction to a complex but vital field.

―James Poterba, Mitsui Professor of Economics, MIT, and President, National Bureau of Economic Research

Mark Warshawsky is one of the world's genuine experts on the subject of retirement income. This book is a collection of his most important contributions to the central policy issue―the quest for financial security in old age. I recommend it highly, especially the parts concerning life annuities that combine income benefits with long-term care.

―Zvi Bodie, Barron Professor of Management, Boston University School of Management

About this edition

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0262525127
• ISBN 13: 9780262525121
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 267