The new retirement reality: calculating the true cost of retirement income adequacy

Recognizing that 401(k) plans are emerging as many employees' sole source of employer-sponsored retirement income, plan sponsors are increasingly adding paternalistic plan features to increase the amount--and effectiveness--of dollars invested in 401(k) accounts. The authors describe the results of a study they prepared for Hewitt Associates that assesses retirement income adequacy for individuals represented in a plan participant database of 1.8 million individuals. The study includes analysis of retirement income adequacy for the aggregate population as well as the results for different subgroups, reflecting factors such as whether individuals actively contribute; the impact of different levels of retiree medical coverage; and the presence of a defined benefit pension. Finally, the authors discuss how plan sponsors can bolster the adequacy of retirement income from 401(k) plans, depending on employer objectives.     

Improving retirement adequacy through asset class prioritization

Highly risk-averse retirees are generally advised to adopt a fixed spending strategy such as the 4% withdrawal rule. To prevent the premature depletion of a retirement portfolio, the rule attempts to proxy as the ‘safe withdrawal rate’. But a constant withdrawal rate means that retirees accumulate unspent surpluses when markets outperform and face spending shortfalls when markets underperform. While a safe withdrawal rate can prevent spending shortfalls, the opportunity cost of unspent surpluses associated with this strategy can be extreme. We apply a range of basic investment decision rules to a retirement portfolio applying various withdrawal rates and examine the probability of shortfalls over a retirement horizon. Using a block bootstrap simulation technique, we examine decision rules relating to stock and bond investments. Our results show that retirement portfolios with a bias towards stocks coupled with a decision rule that sources withdrawals from bonds and cash before stocks significantly outperforms alternative withdrawal strategies, despite the inherent increase in volatility. This finding is in direct contrast to the safe withdrawal rate conventions used in contemporary financial advice models.     

Shifting responsibility to workers: the future of retirement adequacy in the United States

While many 401(k) participants at large companies can expect replacement of nearly 100% of preretirement income, not all workers participate in their 401(k) plan. Moreover, the authors show that even among participants, the extent of retirement preparedness depends on defined benefit (DB) plan coverage and retiree medical benefit generosity. Given recent trends in the elimination of DB plans and retiree medical subsidies and the voluntary nature of 401(k) participation, retirement income responsibility is increasingly shifting to workers. The authors discuss how employers might help workers meet their retirement income needs in this changing environment.     

HARI: Characteristics of a new defined lifestyle (DL) retirement planning product

Journal of Financial Services Marketing - Approximately 16% of the world's population lives in countries with some concept of a financial retirement plan. Of the remaining population, many do...     

Understanding your retirement savings: How the recent economic recession changed advertising in retirement financial services

This study investigates how messages, creative strategies and advertising disclosures utilized by US retirement financial services (RFS) providers changed in response to the recent economic crisis. A content analysis examines a total of 1819 RFS print advertisements published in six national magazines during the period 2005–2009. Three significant findings emerge: (1) the recession led to a change in the use of informational message strategies over transformational message strategies, (2) there were significant differences in the use of message and creative strategies during the five-year period, and (3) the RFS providers increasingly adhered to governmental advertising disclosure guidelines concerning consumer financial welfare. Implications for financial services advertisers and public policymakers are addressed.     

面对外来和尚

吸引外资自然是好事.一些地方政府为了促进地区经济发展,都在抢抓机遇,纷纷打开自家大门,掀起了一浪高过一浪的招商引资热潮.但在其具体运作过程中,往往引发一些不良倾向.……     

The retirement wealth of the baby boom generation

The paper compares the well-being of the baby boom generation (ages 40-55) in 2001 with the same age group in 1983. I find little evidence that their relative position deteriorated over the period. By some indicators, this generation has seen an improvement. In terms of income, the 40-55 age group was at about the same relative position in 2001 as in 1983. In terms of conventional wealth, there was some slippage over the period. In terms of mean augmented wealth (net worth plus pension and Social Security wealth), their relative position improved somewhat but in terms of median augmented wealth there was again some slippage.     

From the bird's eye to the microscope: A survey of new stylized facts of the intra-daily foreign exchange markets

This paper presents stylized facts concerning the spot intra-daily foreign exchange markets. It first describes intra-daily data and proposes a set of definitions for the variables of interest. Empirical regularities of the foreign exchange intra-daily data are then grouped under three major topics: the distribution of price changes, the process of price formation and the heterogeneous structure of the market. The stylized facts surveyed in this paper shed new light on the market structure that appears composed of heterogeneous agents. It also poses several challenges such as the definition of price and of the time-scale, the concepts of risk and efficiency, the modeling of the markets and the learning process.     

A benchmark for the adequacy of published financial statements

This paper considers the problem of establishing a criterion against which auditors and others can judge the adequacy of financial reporting. Three types of criteria are considered: a general over-riding requirement (type A), an integrated coherent framework (type B), and detailed regulation (type C). Approaches, trends and arguments are presented from a number of contexts, such as UK, US and Europe. Where more than one type of criterion is present (all three exist in the UK for example) one must be superior to the others. There can only be one deciding benchmark of adequacy. It is argued that type B is inadequate as such a benchmark, as all attempted ‘conceptual’ frameworks are internally inconsistent. Types A and C are both theoretically possible, but it is argued that only Type A is consistent, as the ultimate benchmark of adequacy, with the provision of useful information in a dynamic economic world. The current IASC thinking as demonstrated in IAS1 (revised) (IASC 1977a) is discussed, and contrasted with the fundamentally different proposals in the earlier exposure draft E53 (IASC 1996). The arguments of the paper throw considerable light on this debate, and are consistent with the final content of IAS1 (revised).     

拓宽居民收入的现实渠道

财产性收入主要是指通过资本、技术和管理等要素,参与社会经济活动所获得的收入,主要包括利息、租金、专利收入、红利收入和财产增值收益等.30多年的制度变迁,中国国民经济总体实力增强,居民收入成多元化态势.然而,近年来,世界经济回升乏力,中国经济增长速度放缓,如何规避"拉美陷阱",持续增加居民可支配收入,依靠消费需求拉动经济,成为中国经济社会现代化面临的阵痛和现实挑战.     

On the IASB comprehensive income project: an analysis of the case for dual income display

The IASB is presently involved in a project on reporting comprehensive income. Since the IASB accounting model mixes two income determination systems, namely, historical cost accounting and fair value accounting, an interesting question pertains to whether the display of comprehensive income should reflect the existence of these two paradigms. This article scrutinizes, from both the points of view of accounting theory and a valuation perspective, the typical arguments made by proponents of historical cost net income and comprehensive fair value income. It finds that claims for exclusive reliance on a single concept of income are untenable. The analysis provides arguments in defence of an income display that explicitly features both income concepts. Such a dual income display would correspond to a categorization of comprehensive income that is currently investigated in the IASB performance reporting project. However, given the importance of summarization in financial analysis, as is most extremely reflected in the focus on the earnings per share (EPS) number, the case for a dual income display should also be considered at the highest level of summarization of financial performance reporting. In other words, mandatory publication of two EPS numbers, one for net income, and one for comprehensive income, should be considered. Possible effects on perception and actual use of financial reports that should enter such a consideration are suggested as topics for experimental research.     

Comparing the top and the bottom income earners: Distribution of income and taxes in the United States

Tax reform is again at the center stage as Congress grapples with ideas to reduce the US budget deficit and the country readies itself for another election year. Given this unusually charged tax reform season, populist and party rhetoric appears to the general population to have largely replaced reasoned debate as politicians, economists and pundits “cherry pick” facts to justify their claims. Our contribution to the current debate on tax equity is that this is one of the very few studies that jointly consider the impact of payroll and income taxes. Most tax equity studies focus only on the federal income tax and as such issue misleading implications. It is important to jointly consider payroll and income taxes because (a) for taxpayers in lower income ranges, the payroll tax burden outweighs the income tax burden, while (b) for higher income taxpayers income from wages above $106,800 ($110,000 in 2012) are payroll-tax free, and (c) other sources of income, namely dividends and capital gains, are not subject to payroll taxes at all. Thus, we provide a more comprehensive picture of the overall progressivity (or lack thereof) exhibited by the current tax laws. In addition, we also consider how some often-raised tax proposals would prospectively affect income inequality and tax progressivity.     

迎接挑战，实现自我价值

随着中国农业银行股份有限公司上市步伐的加快,各项改革的力度将不断加大,我们广大女员工一定要树立全局观念,以中国农业银行股份有限公司整体利益为重,把思想统一到总行党委的决策上来,关心改革,支持改革,投身改革。发扬自尊、自信、自立、自强的精神,勇敢地迎接改革的挑战,把自身价值的实现与中国农业银行股份有限公司改革、发展目标紧紧地结合起来,在各项工作中发挥“半边天”的作用,做出应有的贡献。我觉得要从以下几个方面做好自己的工作。     

Assessing the maintenance of savings sufficiency over the first decade of retirement

The goal of securing adequate resources in retirement dominates the ongoing debate regarding social security reforms designed to accommodate the demographic transformation and to provide minimum income security to retired workers. Policy proposals concerned with the implication of future public sector costs emphasize greater individual responsibility for meeting retirement resource goals. Proposals seeking minimum living standards imply expansion of public fiscal liabilities. We contribute to this discussion by examining the extent to which a cohort of US retirees were able to meet resource adequacy standards at the time of retirement, and to maintain initial levels of resources over the first decade of retirement. We compare annuitized wealth, including social security and pension wealth, to two adequacy standards—a household’s preretirement earnings (reflecting the goal of maintaining preretirement consumption) and the US poverty threshold (reflecting the goal of meeting minimum consumption standards). We analyze the relationship of individual characteristics to changes in resource adequacy over time, and identify the characteristics of those who gain and lose resources over the first decade of retirement. Finally, we simulate the effects on adequacy and public sector benefit costs of four social insurance policy proposals. This research was partially supported by a grant from the Social Security Administration. Additional support was provided by the Institute for Research on Poverty, the Graduate School and the Center for Demography and Ecology all at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Conclusions represent those of the authors alone and not of the funding agencies.     

县级地区会计师事务所发展中的问题

在国内5000多家会计师事务所中,地处县级地区的事务所(以下简称县级事务所)在数量上占了“半壁江山”,几乎每个县都有1至2家。脱钩改制6年来,县级事务所同经济发达城市事务所一样,有发展,也有问题。笔者拟就其中几个突出问题谈点看法。脱钩改制不彻底、历史遗留问题多按照财政部有关文件规定,会计师(审计)事务所要先脱钩后改制。脱钩主要指在人员、财务、业务、名称4个方面进行脱钩。迄今为止,有相当多的县级事务所特别是边远贫困地区的事务所,除了名称改了外,在人员、财务、业务方面仍未完全脱钩。有些事务所成了主管部门干部家属、子女、…     

昆山:一种预备的姿势

在昆山市的政府网站上,有这样一段介绍文字: 昆山地处中国经济最发达的长江三角洲,是上海经济圈中一个重要的新兴工商城市,历史悠久,物产丰饶,素有"江南鱼米之乡"美称.面积921平方公里,人口59万,辖1 5个镇.