|
|
Financial Times to Publish Special Report on Reinventing Retirement
NEW YORK, NY, October 13, 2005 -- The Financial Times will publish a special report on October 19, 2005, entitled "Reinventing Retirement," an in-depth look at the challenges and opportunities governments, employers and individuals face from the rise in life expectancy and infertility throughout the world. Consequently, there is tremendous strain on global pension systems, on healthcare systems and on the current world of work.
Broadly, this report will look at how those affected are adapting, if they will adapt in time, if measures can be taken to halt the decline in fertility, whether employers can cope with an ageing workforce and the political implications of it all. More specifically, the FT plans to include fourteen features that focus on the following topics.
Public retirement systems: This feature offers a comparative look at strains on the old world and the adaptation of the new; the routes taken by formerly communist countries that have had to rebuild; and the problems faced by countries such as China and India, which face spectacular demographic transitions.
Private retirement systems: The UK, the US and the Netherlands have long had large private sector pension savings while other countries, such as those in South America, have adopted them more recently. But these, too, are showing strain. Are defined benefit schemes dying to the point where they will become extinct or will defined benefit live on in career average schemes and hybrids? Will attempts to protect those in occupational schemes such as the US Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation and UK's Pension Protection Fund support occupational provision or kill it? This report will look at the way both investment and longevity risk is being shifted from employers to individuals and what can be done to make that shift more manageable.
Country examples:
- The US: privatizing Social Security.
- New Zealand: Citizen's pension - model for the world or one-off quirk.
- Sweden: Investing in funds and using notional defined contributions.
- Australia: Compulsory pension saving caught the eyes of the world. How well has it worked?
- China: The biggest future problem of them all?
- Italy: Struggling with Europe's worst demographics.
- Germany: The long hard slog to reform.
- Chile: An inspiration for some, but how has it gone?
- Japan: Tough, tough, tough.
- How is Eastern Europe faring?
The world of work: How are employers, employees and governments in different countries coping with the prospect of longer working lives? Does age discrimination legislation in the US and Europe make a difference? Will employers and the younger workforce adapt? The issues include inter-generational tensions at work; blocked promotions; and unequal benefits as final salary schemes wind down to be replaced by less generous money purchase schemes. What sort of work will older people do, or be capable of? Can people adapt to a pattern where their most senior job may no longer be their last one?
Older workers: Are they good for business? This report will consider research that suggests they might well be.
Attitudes towards retirement: Everyone has their own view of how secure they will be in retirement - and these views shape decisions, actions and policies. But these attitudes differ between age groups and between nationalities. AARP, the leading US organization for ages 50+, asked people of all age groups in 10 countries how they view retirement. This report will look at the results.
Public vs. private. Private sector pensions in some countries are becoming riskier and less generous. But cutting the pensions of public sector workers appears at least as tough, if not tougher, than cutting state pensions overall. Is this a source of tension, envy and public versus private battles?
Being young in an aging world: Younger people rarely worry about pensions. Is that changing? How do the young feel about the demographic transition, where in some countries they're asked to pay more to maintain the elderly while also having to pay more for tertiary education?
Aging and health:
- Old and fit or old and ill? Do the economics of health in old age matter as much as the economics of providing an income? Does the theory of compression of morbidity -- living longer but living healthier -- hold up? Or will medical advance mean that health costs will rocket -- as will social care costs?
- Pharmaceuticals: meeting the bill.
- Genetics and bioethics.
- Retirement and education: Will there be a boom time for universities and further education colleges? If so, will the learning be for pleasure and leisure or towards retraining a new career?
- Retirement and housing: Retirement villages, sheltered housing and houses designed to last a lifetime offer opportunities for developers and builders.
- Retirement and technology: How might modern technology -- from alarms and sensors to entertainment -- transform the lives of an ageing population?
- Grey dollars: Older people -- and that can mean people aged 50 and over -- complain that advertisers ignore them, yet the elderly have mighty spending power. Is everyone missing a trick?
- Grey power: It is much talked about, but does it exist? Will older voters really vote as a block and in their own interests, or is the picture far more complex?
About the Financial Times
Financial Times is firmly established as one of the world's leading business information brands, internationally recognized for its authoritative, accurate, and incisive news, comment and analysis. Whether in print or online, the Financial Times is essential reading for the global business community.
###
Click here for more material dealing with current trends, opinion, news, legislative action, investments, marketing, sales, consulting, and legal issues on 401k plans.
This is a press release provided by the company or its representatives. 401khelpcenter.com, LLC is not the author of this release and is not associated or affiliated with any firm or organization mentioned unless otherwise noted. Use of any information obtained from this release is voluntary, and reliance on it should only be undertaken after an independent review of its accuracy, completeness, efficacy, and timeliness. Reference to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, service mark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by 401khelpcenter.com, LLC.
|
|
