March 1, 2016
Loneliest Seniors Vulnerable to Fraud
“Lost my husband to 9/11 terror attack” – using heartbreaking stories like these, a U.K. scam that became public last month persuaded some lonely older men to turn their money over to widows.
This report is a dramatic illustration of a relationship between loneliness and fraud that has been uncovered in recent research. That study found that people over 50 have been vulnerable to being victimized by fraud in recent years – but the prevalence of fraud was three times higher among people who are extremely depressed or lonely.
The 2013 study in the journal Clinical Gerontologist might be the first to examine financial exploitation from the point of view of psychological vulnerability. It was based on a general survey of older Americans that asks each participant if they’ve “been the victim of financial fraud in the past five years.”
The psychological survey questions pin down whether they suffer from depressive symptoms and whether their social needs are fulfilled. The social needs questions address loneliness and a lack of social affirmation, asking the survey’s respondents whether they “have people to turn to, people to talk to, people to feel close to” and are “part of a group” and “appreciated.” …Learn More
February 11, 2016
More Parents Split Bequests Unequally
As the American family becomes increasingly complex, so do parents’ wills.
The result has been a dramatic increase over the past two decades in the share of wills in which parents distribute their estate’s assets unequally among their genetic offspring and stepchildren.
New research, based on surveys of older Americans, finds that about one-third of parents today do not distribute their assets equally. The reasons range from the greater incidence of divorce and the inherent disadvantage of being a stepchild to the fact that some children naturally take on the role of caring for their aging parents. With parents now living longer and needing more care, children may receive compensation in the will for providing that care.
About 42 percent of older parents have not written a will, though it’s unclear why, according to the study. But when there is a will, here is how complexity affects the distribution of bequests, based on the research findings: …Learn More
January 19, 2016
Empty-Nesters Aren’t Saving Enough
Day care, sneakers, cell phones, maybe college – kids are expensive. When they grow up, empty-nesters face a decision about what to do with their extra money.
What they choose is crucial to their retirement security for two reasons – one obvious, and one subtle but very important.
The Center for Retirement Research estimates that about half of U.S. workers might not have enough savings to maintain their standard of living after they retire. So, the obvious thing to do after being freed from child-rearing obligations is to put more money into an employer retirement plan. But 401(k) saving increases only modestly after the kids leave home, according a study by the Center comparing empty-nesters with parents whose kids are still living at home.
The Center’s researchers confirmed this finding using two separate sources of data on married households’ finances. One was a University of Michigan survey of nearly 2,500 households in which the man was over age 50, with financially independent offspring defined as those who are no longer living at home and, if they are college students, have not attended school continuously. The other was U.S. Census data on more than 40,000 adult households of all ages, with independence defined simply as over age 23. …Learn More
January 14, 2016
Policy Reduces Elderly Women’s Incomes
Poverty is the scourge of women in old age.
This problem was aggravated, according to a new study, when older workers started claiming their Social Security benefits sooner after the earnings test was lifted in 2000 for those who reach the program’s full retirement age.
The earnings test withholds benefits from older workers earning more than a specified amount – the withheld benefits are returned later, in the form of an increase in monthly Social Security checks. But the earnings test is, nevertheless, often viewed as a tax in the mistaken belief that these benefits are never restored.
Researchers at the U.S. Treasury Department and the University of California at Irvine found that people reacted in one of two ways to lifting the earnings test, both based on the misperception it’s a tax. One response was to work longer – as Congress intended – under the logic that benefits would no longer be unduly “taxed” after workers entered their late 60s. The second and more common response was to claim benefits earlier than one would have prior to the policy change, when workers perceived that delayed claiming was the way to avoid this “tax.”
The earnings test remains in place for beneficiaries younger than the full retirement age – 66 for most boomers. However, the researchers analyzed a broader age range of workers – 62 to 70; even those who haven’t yet reached their full retirement age might change their behavior in anticipation they will soon reach it, and the test will no longer apply to them.
Earlier claiming by men and women, which results in smaller monthly Social Security checks, has fallen especially hard on elderly widows. After a husband dies, the two benefit checks coming into the house are reduced to one. Although widows receive the larger of the couple’s two checks – typically the husband’s – it may not be sufficient to maintain her standard of living. …Learn More
December 10, 2015
How Couples Deplete Retirement Savings
Americans who save for retirement throughout their working lives often hold tight to that savings after they retire. A new study shows they eventually do spend much of this money and sheds light on where it goes.
The study focuses on the retirement spending patterns of couples, adding to similar past studies on single retirees. While both spouses are alive, the researchers found that a couple’s wealth remains relatively stable over time – until they start paying for medical care, nursing homes, and other major end-of-life expenses.
The researchers examined spending patterns for more than 4,600 households over a 15-year period using a subset of the Health and Retirement Study that collects data on the health and wealth of people over age 70. Wealth included savings and retirement accounts, investments, and home equity.
Couples in two different income groups were compared: the average couple at the 20th percentile has about $14,000 in post-retirement income and $70,000 in wealth at age 74; the 80th percentile couple has more than $30,000 in income and $330,000 in wealth.
Here are the study’s main findings:
- For couples in both income groups, wealth remains much the same so long as both spouses are alive. …
December 8, 2015
Age Discrimination Affects Women More
Some people might plan to work well into their 60s if they can’t afford to retire, or if they just think they’ll be around a long time. But this strategy is more difficult for women to execute than for men.
A study of employer discrimination in hiring found “strong and robust” evidence that female job applicants in their mid-60s were much less likely to be called in for interviews for low-skill jobs than were younger women. Evidence of age discrimination among older men was more mixed, or even non-existent in one occupation.
“It seems there was age discrimination for women – no matter what,” said Patrick Button, an economist at Tulane University.
To conduct their meticulously designed study, the researchers sent out more than 40,000 mock applications for jobs advertised online in 12 cities. The “applicants” fell into three age groups – 29-31, 49-51, and 64-66 – and submitted resumés in four job categories: retail sales, office administration, security guard, and janitor.
The results confirmed age discrimination, showing a clear decline in callback rates in three of the four occupations – administration, sales, and security – as the workers progressed from their late 20s and early 30s into their mid-60s. … Learn More
December 1, 2015
What Derails a Planned Retirement Date
Workers are feeling very ambitious these days: one in three plans to retire after age 65. In the 1990s, just one in 10 did.
In reality, though, many older Americans today are retiring before they’d planned, resulting in lower monthly Social Security checks, slimmer 401(k) accounts, and more golden years to pay for.
There’s no shortage of research looking into what derails these plans. But, for the first time, a new study ran a statistical horse race among the various reasons known to impact older workers’ decisions. Health issues finished first in the race, followed by layoffs, and a spouse’s early retirement.
In an ideal world, eliminating these major shocks, along with a few less prevalent shocks that were also analyzed, would reduce the share of older workers retiring earlier than planned, from 37 percent to 27 percent. [The remaining factors that were still unaccounted for in this analysis could be anything from not liking one’s job to financial or health events that went undetected by the survey.] …Learn More
About Squared Away
Learn more about our blog and its writer, Kimberly Blanton, a former Boston Globe reporter.
