-
Do You Face 'Money Death' in Old Age?
Tweet Share on Facebook February 10, 2012 Comment"Money death" is a dramatic term used in a contrarian study about strategies that help people avoid outliving their assets. Brandes Investment Partners, a money-management company based in San Diego, notes in "Boomers Behaving Badly" that running out of money is a top concern of retirees. With safe investments paying historically low interest rates and a still-shaky economic recovery, retirement security concerns are getting worse these days, not better.
[See 10 Steps to Fine-Tune Your Retirement Plan.]
Yet for many investors approaching their retirement years, Brandes lays out a more optimistic path that relies on moving away from conventional retirement strategies in favor of a more aggressive approach. The Brandes retirement portfolio is heavily weighted in dividend-paying stocks and higher-yield corporate bonds, even for investors well past retirement age.
-
4 Keys to a Solid Financial and Retirement Plan
Tweet Share on Facebook February 9, 2012 CommentBefore getting too far into the new year, it's important to develop a realistic record of where you ended 2011 and how your financial situation changed during the year. You'd think everyone would already know where they stand, but such financial self-awareness is the exception.
Building such a record takes time and effort. Creating an annual report of your finances, however, can provide an invaluable record that only you can assemble. Done properly, it should illuminate your future, paving the way to important financial decisions and helping you make smarter choices.
-
Lower Medicare Advantage Premiums Attract Seniors
Tweet Share on Facebook February 7, 2012 CommentMedicare users stepped up their use of Medicare Advantage insurance plans in 2012 and also boosted their use of insurance plans linked with large pharmacy chains for what's called stand-alone prescription drug plans (PDPs). In these respects, the 2012 open enrollment process was a success for the government, and showed that large numbers of Medicare users were willing to switch coverage to find health plans they felt were better for them.
[See 10 Ways to Boost Your Social Security Checks.]
This year's favorable price trends may not continue. Provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) could sharply cut payments to participating Medicare Advantage insurers in a few years, possibly leading to less-favorable coverage and premiums. And the ACA itself is on uncertain footing because of constitutional challenges now before the Supreme Court. But for now, the news on Medicare Advantage is mostly good.
-
4 Ways New Annuity Rules Will Help Retirees
Tweet Share on Facebook February 6, 2012 CommentThe White House last week strongly endorsed annuities as a needed but missing piece of Americans' retirement plans. Insurance companies and annuity trade groups had something nice to say about Washington regulators for a change. And the new rules just might set in motion some interesting retirement-plan changes.
[See Where Smart Investors Put Their Money.]
Among financial products, annuities have long been a very hard sell. It's easy to understand the appeal of buying Apple stock or getting in on the ground floor of Facebook's IPO. Understanding annuities and their benefits, however, is not on the minds of many investors.
-
Senior Support Programs Still Bleeding Red Ink
Tweet Share on Facebook February 3, 2012 CommentIn Congress and on the presidential campaign trail, Republicans and Democrats are pounding each other on their sharply differing views of government's role. Senior benefits—Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security—are the programs most at risk in this partisan debate. And while the talking goes on and on, their financial conditions continue to deteriorate.
[See 10 Steps to Fine-Tune Your Retirement Plan.]
In its annual report on government finances, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) this week continued its nonpartisan projection of exactly how much red ink the "big three" entitlement programs are producing. Each year, the amounts grow, the trend lines look worse, and the time cushion to fashion orderly adjustments gets smaller.
-
How to Prepare for a Deflationary World
Tweet Share on Facebook February 1, 2012 CommentWith interest rates at zero and forecasts for very low economic growth, fears that the United States could experience falling prices, or deflation, have reappeared.
Experts generally do not expect prices to actually fall, but it's not something they totally disregard. And for retirees, deflation sharply increases the need to find reliable, if modest, investment returns.
-
Investors Scramble as Fed Extends Low Rate Policy
Tweet Share on Facebook January 31, 2012 CommentThe Federal Reserve has just extended its low interest-rate policy through the end of 2014. The central bank was widely praised for its extraordinary commitment to helping the economy recover.
But there was little, if any, cheering from investors and retirement experts who are looking at nearly three more years of dismal yields on bonds, CDS, and savings accounts.
-
Reverse Mortgages: Big Potential, Small Results
Tweet Share on Facebook January 30, 2012 Comment (1)Reverse mortgages should be a breakout product of demographic destiny.
Millions of older Americans are hurtling toward very uncertain retirements. Survey after survey documents a serious lack of retirement planning and nest eggs too small to support even modestly comfortable retirements. Continued longevity gains are extending the retirements of many people to 20 and 30 years, if not longer. Government spending on seniors is threatened by budget deficits and conservative opposition to government programs.
-
Why Consumers Struggle to Understand Healthcare
Tweet Share on Facebook January 27, 2012 CommentOlder patients, caregivers, and family members face growing challenges in understanding and navigating the nation's increasingly complex healthcare system. Consumer illiteracy, long applied to financial matters, also has become an enormous issue in healthcare.
[See 10 Things States Are Doing to Make Senior-Friendly Communities.]
Sophisticated drugs and dosages are more complicated. With many seniors being treated for multiple chronic diseases, there can be dangerous interactive effects of taking medications for these differing problems. Dealing with medical professionals is also often challenging. Consumers don't understand medical language and many healthcare professionals seem incapable of speaking in any other tongue.
-
Posthumous Births: An Emerging Estate Challenge
Tweet Share on Facebook January 25, 2012 CommentMore than half a million cryopreserved embryos are now in storage somewhere in the United States. An unknown but far greater number of sperm donors have also made deposits that could be used for an expanding array of assisted reproductive technologies (ART). Putting aside any number of religious, ethical, and social issues, ART is also creating very difficult problems for some estates.
[See Estate Plans Reeling from 'Volatility Fatigue']
When a couple or surviving spouse die, their assets usually pass to their children and, later still, to their grandchildren. But what should happen when a child is conceived and born after, and in some cases many years after, their parent's death? Even if such a child, sometimes called a postmortem conception child, is anticipated in a parent's will, that does not solve the matter. Are they or are they not to be considered a grandchild and entitled to proceeds of the estates of the parents of their deceased parent?
