Reports
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Protecting Senior Investors: Compliance, Supervisory and Other Practices Used by Financial Services Firms in Serving Senior Investors
Statistics show that baby boomers today control more than $13 trillion in household investable assets, or over 50% of total U.S. household investment assets.1 Projections also show that nearly one in every six Americans will be 65 or older by the year 2020.2 Given the increasing number of investors who will need advice and guidance, financial services firms are actively developing new products and seeking to provide financial advice and services to investors as they prepare for and reach retirement.
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Sharing Their Good Fortune: Boomers and Giving Back
While Boomers (born between 1946-1964) have often been referred to as the "Me Generation," now, having experienced the personal and historical events that define their values as a generation, many Boomers are giving careful thought to helping others. In fact, four in five Boomers say "I have been very fortunate in life," and this positive view of their lives is manifested in finding ways to sharing their good fortune.
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The Housing Bubble and Retirement Security
House prices rose 60 percent between 2000 and 2007 before the housing bubble burst. The question is whether the housing boom made people better or worse prepared for retirement. If they extracted the equity from their home through some form of housing-related debt and consumed all their borrowings, they will be left with additional debt and no additional assets and probably will be worse off in retirement. If they did not borrow and consume their equity, they will have more housing wealth to tap in retirement and will be better off.
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Do Households Have a Good Sense of Their Retirement Preparedness?
This brief examines whether households have a good sense of their own retirement preparedness -- do their retirement expectations match the reality that they face? Do people "at risk" know that they are "at risk?" The first section summarizes the NRRI and compares households' self-assessed preparedness to the objective measure provided by the NRRI. The second section describes the characteristics of house- holds associated with being too optimistic or too pessimistic. The last section of this brief introduces health care costs into the analysis.
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Sharing ther Good Fortune: Boomers and Giving Back
While Boomers (born between 1946-1964) have often been referred to as the "Me Generation," now, having experienced the personal and historical events that define their values as a generation, many Boomers are giving careful thought to helping others. In fact, four in five Boomers say "I have been very fortunate in life," and this positive view of their lives is manifested in finding ways to sharing their good fortune.
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Independent Advisor Outlook Study
An online study was conducted from July 8 to July 20, 2008 among 1010 advisors employed by independent investment firms with assets custodied at Charles Schwab Institutional.
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Why Women Worry
Gender matters in retirement planning. Research from The Hartford and the MIT AgeLab shows that women are more concerned than men about retirement risks. When put into a larger economic and demographic context, women have good reason to worry. However, with a skillful and knowledgeable advisor guiding them, angst can be turned into action, and women can feel more secure both in the retirement planning stage and once they have retired.
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Beyond the Golden Age of Retirement
The Social Security Program was established in 1935 to provide income maintenance for retired American workers. Over the years from 1935 to 1975, program coverage expanded and new program elements were added. During the 1940s, the employer-based pension movement that had begun in the late nineteenth century began to expand rapidly. Together with other important developments in government and private policy (such as employer-provided health insurance for retirees), these programs made for a "golden era" for American retirees.
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More Than Just Language: A Look at Diversity Among Hispanic Boomers
The potential of the Hispanic market is not new news anymore. Hispanics, now the nation's largest minority group at 42 million, are the fastest-growing group in the country. It is estimated that by 2020, one in every five Americans will be Hispanic. According to the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business, the buying power of Hispanics is projected to grow to more than $1.2 trillion five years from now.1 Among the US Boomer segment (born between 1946-1964), Hispanics represent approximately 10% of the population - over 7 million consumers.
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More Than Just Language Part 2: A Continued Look At Diversity Among Hispanic Boomers
Earlier this year, Focalyst took a look at Hispanic Boomers and focused on the need to go beyond language in order to understand how diverse this population is, not only by levels of acculturation, but also in terms of their lifestyles. Marketers miss important segments by using language as the defining Hispanic characteristic.
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Prospects for A Growth Recession: A Mid-Year Economic Review
"...The economy is not expected to grow fast enough to absorb the influx of new workers into the labor force, and the unemployment rate is expected to continue to rise. This is closer to what economists term a 'growth recession' than a a true expansion..."
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The Retirement Distribution Challenge
Before transitioning to a new stage of life, it is critical to review your wealth management strategy and financial plan. Nowhere is this more important than when shifting from a lifetime of earning and accumulation to a period of retirement and distribution. In fact, one of the most challenging areas of wealth management is the successful planning and execution of a distribution strategy. A successful plan must balance values, needs and resources effectively. As if this were not a big enough challenge, there is almost no area where uncertainty and randomness of expected returns can have a larger or more immediately felt impact on a plan as well as on an entire family�s financial well being. The purpose of this white paper is to layout the main features of the distribution puzzle, present a hypothetical example, introduce randomness into the picture and suggest a disciplined approach that brings it all together.
Boomer Stat of the WeekTwo-thirds of the oldest boomers are not only financially unprepared for retirement, but they also don't realize it. |