Retirement Income

Research Questions Role of Asset Allocation in Retirement

Research from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College suggests that asset allocation is a relatively ineffective factor in creating a secure foundation of retirement income . The research examines and compares the effectiveness of a handful of levers that have the potential to contribute to a solid foundation of retirement income. Among the levers or contributing factors considered are: Asset Allocation Working Longer A Reverse Mortgage Spending Less The various retirement income...

Mark Warshawsky on the Retirement Income Market

Mark J. Warshawsky is Director of Retirement Research at Towers Watson.

Dr. Warshawsky served as assistant secretary for economic policy at the U.S. Treasury Department from 2004-2006 and he has held senior level economic research positions at the Federal Reserve Board, the Internal Revenue Service and...

Why Fixed Annuities Could Prove Toxic in an Era of Financial Repression

In a recent and highly recommended Bloomberg op-ed, Carmen Reinhart discusses the options available to governments and central banks when attempting to deal with the burden of enormous amounts of public and private debt.

Reinhart suggests that the preferred policy option for many governments--including the United States--is a form of stealth taxation that amounts to...

Short-Term Focus has Adverse Impact on Retirement Income Product Development

Warren Buffett’s most recent shareholder letter focuses on the merits of productive assets such as equities in light of the current low interest rate environment and the potential for future inflation.

Buffett’s view is that although productive assets are variable and volatile, they are more likely to preserve future purchasing power than the fixed or currency-based alternatives.

Buffett’s advice would seem to provide a key...

A Benchmark for Lifetime Income

The world is filled with investing indexes and benchmarks, and all professional investment managers measure their results relative to some type of performance standard such as the S&P 500.

On the retirement...

Pages