In its annual retirement confidence survey released last year, the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that 20% of workers intend to retire at a later age than they had planned. Of those who said they will retire later, the main reasons cited were the poor economy, a lack of faith in Social Security or the government, a change in employment situation or, simply, that they can’t afford to retire.
Given the economic upheaval many employees have faced in recent years, the decision to delay retirement is perhaps not a surprising one. But for employers with defined benefit plans, there may be times when offering employees a voluntary early retirement program makes sense, both financially and from a workforce management perspective.
