June 2026
04Jun

US. The Typical Couple’s Cost of Retirement in Every State

A typical American couple needs about $1.16 million saved to retire comfortably—less per person than what a single retiree needs. The average retired couple spends about $84,000 a year, with Social Security covering less than $38,000 of that amount. The savings needed to fill the gap varies widely by state, from $800,000 in North Dakota to as much as $1.33 million in New Jersey and Hawaii. A typical American couple age 65 or older needs about $1.16 million saved to retire...

June 4, 2026
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02Jun

US. Company Pension Funds Stuffed With Bonds Ease Up on Debt Buying

A key source of demand for corporate bonds may be fading now that managers of company pension funds have more than enough money on hand to pay their retirees. Company-sponsored plans that had struggled in past years to keep up with their obligations in an era of low interest rates have gotten a boost from a decade of strong equity returns. Many plowed those gains into bonds in more recent years as yields rose. The trade allowed managers to lock...

June 2, 2026
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May 2026
29May

The Duty to Explain: Fiduciary Intelligibility Under ERISA

By Ian Edwards This Essay examines whether the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) contains an emerging principle of fiduciary intelligibility within its participant disclosure framework. ERISA requires Summary Plan Descriptions (“SPDs”) to be written in a manner “calculated to be understood by the average plan participant.” While modern pension disclosure has become increasingly sophisticated and financially technical, this Essay argues that administrative and financial disclosure are not necessarily equivalent to fiduciary intelligibility. The Essay does not propose a...

May 29, 2026
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27May

Most people in the US are at risk of outliving their retirement savings

Retirement savings may have hit record levels, but a mere 12% of retirement savers in the U.S. have enough funds set aside to last more than 10 years, a new survey warns. The survey of 1,000 U.S. retirement savers by online retirement pension provider PensionBee also found that just 13% of respondents could not survive one month on their funds. Increasing lifespans are also adding to the retirement savings pressure. Life expectancy for the U.S. population was 79 years in 2024, according to CDC data,...

May 27, 2026
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25May

US. Aging in place comes with major financial hurdles

More than 75% of older Americans say they want to “age in place,” or live in their home for as long as possible. Sounds reasonable. But 40% have doubts about whether that's possible, according to a survey by AARP. For many, financial constraints will force them to downsize, relocate to a less expensive city or state or move in with family or into an independent retirement or assisted living community. Money issues such as the cost of age-proofing a home, the...

May 25, 2026
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22May

Investment Decisions of Defined Benefit Pension Plans

By Zhichuan Frank Li, Jun Wang & Yuqi Zhang This paper examines the determinants of defined benefit (DB) pension plan investment decisions of U.S. corporations with the largest 100 DB plans (Milliman 100 companies). We test two contradicting theories on DB plans. The risk-management theory indicates that firms tend to reduce risk in their pension investments when facing high risk, and the risk-shifting theory predicts the opposite because the funds’ downside risk is hedged by federal government insurance. We find...

May 22, 2026
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20May

US. Inflation is at a 3-year high. This is the ‘triple threat’ that retirees now face because of it

Plus, here’s how retirees can smartly deal with the secondary impacts of inflation. For retirees, inflation can hit especially hard thanks to three factors that interact with these rising costs: increased withdrawals, taxes and how those parlay into depleting savings, says Jay Sharifi, CEO of Legacy Wealth Management. Indeed, inflation can trigger a chain reaction, as it can necessitate larger withdrawals so retirees can afford their life. Those withdrawals then inadvertently create larger tax bills — and that may in...

May 20, 2026
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18May

Retirement without guaranteed income streams may mean near-total asset wipeout

Retirement may not unfold the way most people (or planners) expect, and new research from the suggests that without a reliable income floor, the consequences can be severe. The Employee Benefit Research Institute study tracked how household net non-housing assets shifted across a roughly three-decade window using longitudinal data from the 1992–2022 Health and Retirement Study. What it found challenges the conventional image of retirement as a steady, predictable spend-down of accumulated wealth. Asset drawdown varied dramatically depending on how much a retiree...

May 18, 2026
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18May

Growing old gracefully: US hot spots for increased life expectancy revealed

In many advanced economies populations are growing and, at the same time, the average age is rising. This holds true for the U.S., where new research reveals that West Virginia leads the list, with its residents aging nearly eight years faster than the rest of the country. This is based on an April 2026 report conducted by a firm called Auragens, who measured both biological and psychological aging across all 50 states. Biological aging included six factors: physical inactivity, obesity, heart disease,...

May 18, 2026
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15May

US. Mamdani’s counting on pension restructuring to balance the budget. Will the unions let that happen?

Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants to delay certain payments to the city’s pension funds to help close the city’s multibillion dollar funding deficit. The only problem is that he needs municipal labor unions’ approval to change up their retirement accounts, and some unions are mum about the plan while others outright oppose it. While it’s still early, the unions’ apprehension to immediately get on board speaks to the plan’s politically sensitive nature. The pension restructuring proposal is one of the lifelines...

May 15, 2026
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