| | Benefits & Administration | | Financial Wellness Programs Should Address Key Risks | | Most employees are unprepared to fully cover key
financial risks they face during their working careers, The Prudential
Insurance Company of America has found. Prudential says much attention has been
given to the financial risk of outliving one’s assets in retirement, but many
employees underestimate three more immediate risks—loss of family income due to
a premature death, loss of income due to illness or injury, and out-of-pocket
health care and other expenses—which could cripple their financial outlook.
Employees that are not adequately protected against these risks may need to
start paying their day-to-day expenses by incurring credit card debt, using
lines of credit, or taking loans from their employer-sponsored retirement
plans, the company contends.Read more > | | The ratio of pension assets to liabilities, or
funding ratio, for 131 state-sponsored defined benefit retirement systems was
80% in 2014, up from 74% in 2013, according to a report issued by Wilshire
Consulting. Of these 131 state retirement systems, 93% were underfunded. The
average underfunded plan in fiscal year 2013 had an assets-to-liabilities ratio
equal to 71%.Read more > | | Helping Women Become ‘Smart Savers’ Closes Gender Gap | | Women could help close the sizable gender-based
savings gap by taking a cue from the segment of women investors who are
successfully planning for their retirements, BlackRock research finds. Calling
them “Smart Savers,” BlackRock breaks down the behaviors of women who have five
times the savings of the general investing population.Read more > | | The leveling of the average retirement age
suggests that earlier drivers of working longer are no longer having a
substantial impact, according to a research report from the Center for
Retirement Research at Boston College. Alicia H. Munnell, director of the
center, notes in the report that around the mid-1980s the labor force
participation of men ages 55 to 64, and men 65 and older, started to gradually
increase due to a number of factors.Read more > |
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