Pension Risk Matters

Retirement for Three Hundred Million People

According to the Census Bureau, U.S. population now exceeds three hundred million people. In contrast, the headcount was roughly two hundred million in 1968.

Additional numbers are noteworthy. With one birth every seven seconds, a death every thirteen seconds and one net international migration occurring every thirty-one seconds, it's easy to see that population will continue to grow.

Shades of Thomas Malthus, the English economist who warned that more mouths would deplete the available food supply, or an opportunity for innovation due to additional brainpower?

It likely depends on whether you see the glass as half full or half empty. However, one thing is clear. The population is graying at a rapid rate and there is real concern about the economic well-being of seniors who exit the workforce and younger persons who will be called upon to support them.

According to William Poole, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, "Changing demographics make it impossible both to maintain that traditional retirement age, with the level of benefits defined in current law, and to maintain the current level of taxation on the working population to support the retirement system." Global Action on Aging provides a vast collection of country reports about pensions. The message is the same sobering sentiment. Fewer and fewer people are going to have sufficient funds for their later years.

News from the federal front is equally grim. In "Status of the Social Security and Medicare Programs, A Summary of the 2006 Annual Reports", the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees report that "The fundamentals of the financial status of Social Security and Medicare remain problematic under the intermediate economic and demographic assumptions. Social Security's current annual surpluses of tax income over expenditures will soon begin to decline, and will be followed by deficits that begin to grow rapidly toward the end of the next decade as the baby-boom generation retires."

My friends and I have this discussion often. Our conclusions?

1. We will work for a long time, perhaps well beyond the "typical" retirement age.

2. An increasing number of people will move into poverty as national benefits are cut, taxes are raised and private pensions are reduced or terminated altogether.

3. Taxpayers will struggle to fund troubled municipal plans while trying to save for themselves.

4. Fewer companies will offer benefits to new employees, forcing a lifestyle change that requires diminished spending, increased use of debt or both.

5. Health care problems will soon dwarf the pension crisis.

6. There is a perverse incentive for politicians to ignore making unpopular changes that might help in the long-run but hurt voters now. (Besides which, when is the last time a legislator had to worry about his or her retirement account?)

7. Individuals must get smarter and better about taking responsibility for their financial well-being.

8. Effective financial education is paramount.

9. Many individuals favor immediate consumption in lieu of systematic saving.

10. No particular individual or organization seems to "own" the issue.

You get the picture. It's a veritable challenge to be upbeat about what is fast becoming a global retirement crisis.

Is there a sunny side?

Yes but only if one is receptive to making changes. There will be winners and clever investors who identify them early on will do well. Some industries are already showing continued robust growth as our population ages in both absolute and relative terms. Health care is an example. Some see the forced move towards economic individualism as a return to the "get up and go" attitude of our forefathers. (Self-employed persons are already familiar with paying for their own benefits.)

According to an ancient Chinese proverb, "Many grains of sand piled up will make a pagoda."

It's time to get started on a serious savings plan.
Fiduciary Leadership, LLC
929 White Plains Road
No. 377
Trumbull, CT 06611-3938
Phone: (203) 261-5519