Wealth management

One-third of retirees confirmed they are experiencing a lower standard of living in retirement than in their working years, based on the monthly income they have to live on.

For financial advisers, this is a key point to discuss with married plan participants who wish to leave their employer-sponsored retirement account to a non-spouse.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey shows employees more focused on retirement goals but still falling short.

National Institute for Retirement Security releases survey results detailing lack of retirement accounts in the U.S.

EBRI analysis projects up to one-third of Gen Xers could run out of money.

The debate over active and passive management detracts from the fact that Americans simply aren’t saving enough for retirement.

Chad Parks and Andrew Meadows document America’s retirement crisis in their new film, Broken Eggs.

Chad Parks outlines four lessons he learned while filming his documentary about America's retirement crisis.

In a new survey, 47% are “very satisfied” with the information from professional advisers, up from 25% in 2011, while satisfaction with information from plan sponsors is down from 30% two years ago to 10% today.

Most households should not annuitize any of their wealth, according to a study from the Congressional Budget Office.

The survey found that two out of three Millennials expect to retire by the age of 65, although nearly 70% have not started planning or saving for retirement.

If interest rates remain low, more than one in four baby boomers and Gen Xers — who otherwise would have had adequate retirement income — are projected to run out of money in retirement.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch reports 207 plans with auto-increase features, up 9.5% from the end of last year. Participants in those plans also rose, by 9.3%, from 115,703 to 126,537.

Just one in-nine employees nearing retirement are confident in their ability to pay health care expenses.

A 65-year-old couple exiting the workforce in 2013 is estimated to need $220,000 to cover health care costs throughout their retirement, an 8% decrease from last year’s $240,000.

Guest blogger Adam Miloro maintains the issue concerning 401(k) loans continues to be the lack of education surrounding them. It’s true there are certain situations where taking a loan from one’s retirement plan could make sense, he writes, but for many employees loans signify a much larger problem: living beyond one's means.

“We may be jumping the gun,” says one expert. “While there is cognitive decline with normal aging, if we pull out people with brain disease, there’s not enough of a decline for us to worry about older peoples’ ability to make financial decisions.”

More than a third of Americans say they don’t feel financially secure, according to a survey from Unum. Moreover, the number of those who feel “not at all secure” is up from the last year. Women, meanwhile, feel more financially insecure than men.

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.

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.