Retirement

In a scenario where retirement income and wealth account for 100% of an investor’s simulated retirement expenses, a model projects that around a quarter of baby boomers and Gen Xers who would have had sufficient retirement income under interest rates at historical averages would run out of money if the current low rates were taken as a permanent condition.

Making connections is as important as ever, though the process is changing considerably.

Wall Street banks collected $215.6 million that Denver’s public schools paid to unwind swaps and sell bonds since the district began borrowing to cut pension costs in 2008. That sum is about two-thirds of annual teaching expenses.

Detroit may run out of cash next month and must cut costs such as long-term debt and retiree obligations, according to emergency financial manager Kevyn Orr’s preliminary plan to improve services and keep Michigan’s largest city out of bankruptcy.

At the end of 2012, $1.3 trillion was held in the U.S. in ETFs, which got started 20 years ago by State Street Corporation. The ability to trade shares in the funds as if they were shares of stock has made them an increasingly significant part of equities.

A real opportunity for advisers lies in the ambitions of Gen X and Gen Y Americans, who aren’t planning on postponing retirement — yet.

A new Fidelity Investments study finds that noticeably more mothers than fathers have had comprehensive conversations about savings, planning and retirement with their adult children.

Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat and chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, plans to introduce legislation this year to require businesses that don’t offer a pension or 401(k) plan with a company match to automatically enroll workers in a so-called USA Retirement Fund.

Men and women are equally likely to say that they and/or their spouse have saved — or are currently saving — for retirement. And they are almost as likely to indicate that they have tried to calculate how much they will need to save for a comfortable retirement, with 45% of women and 47% of men claiming to have tried to make that calculation.

Baby boomers are bucking the trends of generations before them, according to research released this week from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. When it comes to what they will pass on, 72% cite values and life lessons as most important, while just 32% said financial and real estate assets.