January 2025

2024 BlackRock Read on Retirement

By BlackRock Retirement. It’s deeply personal. And yet, many of the challenges workers face are common and shared. The relationship someone new to the workforce has with retirement is likely very different than that of someone later in their career. Layer in factors like individual experience and a lack of access to the right tools, opportunities and guidance… and suddenly the path can get complex. But we’re rethinking retirement – because it doesn’t have to be. Get the report here.

Influencing Retirement Savings Decisions with Automatic Enrollment and Related Tools

By John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson & Brigitte C. Madrian Historically, retirees in the US relied on the “three-legged stool” of Social Security, defined benefit (DB) pension plans, and personal savings to provide retirement income.1 Beginning in the late 1970s, however, access to DB plans began to fall while access to defined contribution (DC) plans, which require individuals to make their own savings plan contributions and investment decisions during their working years, rose.2 As of December 2023, retirement assets in...

Australia. Avoiding the retirement poverty trap

More than one fifth of Australian retirees live in poverty, according to a recent report by the left-leaning think-tank, The Australia Institute. The Reducing poverty in retirement report compares the poverty rate of people aged 65 and over between Australia, Sweden, and Norway, which are nations with comparable GDPs. It concludes that the public pension systems in Sweden and Norway ensure retirement security while Australia’s system does not. The rate of poverty in retirement in Australia is 22.6% – more than one in five. In...

US. 9 Ways Retirement Will Be Different in 2025

Retirement is not static. Even when the kids are gone and the career is done, your lifestyle and expectations are constantly evolving. So are your finances. Areas key to retirees’ economic life, from Social Security payments and Medicare costs to the way we contribute to and withdraw from savings plans, will see changes in 2025. Here are nine things to know about your retirement money in the year to come. 1. Social Security payments Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) boosts benefits in 2025 by 2.5...

December 2024

Gen Xers Feel Unprepared for Retirement — 11 Things They Need To Do Right Away

Generation X is next in line to retire after boomers, and some have already begun. However, more than half of Gen Xers (52%) don’t feel prepared for retirement, according to a recent Northwestern Mutual study. While being so close to retirement may seem like it’s too late to take any significant action, financial experts explain that’s not the case. Here are 11 things Gen Xers who feel unprepared for retirement should do right away. Create a Financial Plan Though it’s tempting to try and land on a number...

A Checklist for Retiring in 2025

Only you can know if you're ready for a checklist for retiring in 2025. If you’re 60 or getting there, retirement is no longer a hazy concept in the distance. It’s a real deadline. In five or six years, or maybe just a year. Or six months. Or even six weeks. You are going to leave your full-time job, not for a new phase in a working career, but for a largely unknown future. Ideally, you’ve prepared financially and otherwise...

Just 19% of UK savers have factored getting a serious illness in to their retirement plan

Just a fifth of UK savers (19%) have fully considered getting a serious illness in their retirement plan, according to research by consultancy Barnett Waddingham. Its At retirement reckoning report, which surveyed more than 5,000 UK employees, also found that 25% of respondents under the age of 50 have prepared for this possibility, compared to just 16% of those aged over 50. Two-fifths (43%) of this older age group have thought about it but not included it in their retirement planning, and 32%...

Morningstar Drops Recommended Safe Withdrawal Rate to 3.7%

Morningstar Inc. has lowered what the investment research firm considers a safe retirement savings withdrawal rate for new retirees based on a 30-year outlook, according to the firm’s annual “State of Retirement Income” report released Wednesday. To decide on the recommended withdrawal rate, Morningstar researchers considered forward-looking asset class returns and inflation assumptions for new retirees, excluding what they may be getting from Social Security or other nonportfolio income sources such as a company pension. In that forward-looking analysis, the authors...

November 2024

UK. Retirement planning tops financial advice demand but not a priority until age 55

Planning to achieve a comfortable retirement tops clients’ financial advice ‘wish lists’ over the next six months, but the peak age for it being an advice priority is not reached until the age of 55, according to research from St. James’s Place (SJP). Its study showed that the top three advice priorities in the UK were retirement planning advice, general investment and savings advice, and better budgeting. However, SJP found there was a “large generational divide” as cost of living and...

Four Questions to Narrow the Field of Retirement Income Solutions

The ranks of retirement income solutions are already impressive and continue to grow as participants’ needs evolve and providers innovate. It may seem like a tall task for defined contribution (DC) plan sponsors to home in on the solutions that warrant a closer look—even as the growing demand for lifetime income adds urgency to the effort. We think working through four critical questions, which address aspects such as the location, income certainty and accessibility of solutions, can help bring the...