1/21/2016 – Tap-and-go card boom leaves elderly at greater risk of 'family fraud'

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A boom in the use of contactless cards is making elderly cardholders the victims of fraud as family and friends prey on their lack of digital knowhow, a charity has warned.

As tap-and-go cards have grown in popularity Action on Elderly Abuse, a helpline for older crime and abuse victims, has experienced a spike in calls about small, regular amounts of money being stolen by friends or family who can easily access the cards.

Read the full article at The Telegraph.

1/19/2016 – A new approach to do-it-yourself retirement planning

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With the decline of traditional pensions, many older workers and retirees face a “do it yourself” retirement: You’re on your own to figure out how to make your retirement savings last for the rest of your life. With retirements that can extend 20 to 30 years or more, this is indeed a daunting challenge for those who are fortunate enough to accumulate significant savings by the time they retire.

To address this challenge, different thinking and new language is needed to transition from a mindset concerned with accumulating assets for retirement to a mindset concerned with generating income in retirement.

Read the full article by Center on Longevity Research Scholar Steve Vernon.

1/12/2016 – ObamaCare’s $1,200 Pay Cut

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In a working paper, Center on Longevity faculty affiliates Gopi Shah Goda and Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford, and Monica Farid of Harvard exploit the fact that some 37 states had extended dependent-coverage mandates of varying rigor and comprehensiveness before the Affordable Care Act. They explore these differences to estimate the results of the uniform national mandate that was imposed in 2010.

“We find evidence that employees who were most affected by the mandate, namely employees at large firms, saw wage reductions of approximately $1,200 per year,” the researchers observe.

Read the full article at The Wall Street Journal.

1/11/2016 – Raising Retirement Age Disproportionately Hurts Poor

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The rich are increasingly outliving the poor, meaning policies aimed at delaying retirement could disproportionately hurt low socioeconomic status workers, new research shows.

Read the full article at Bloomberg.

1/1/2016 – A Smarter Plan to Make Retirement Savings Last

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Starting in 2020, the numbers of very low-income elderly will rise sharply as the retired population soars to almost 56 million. More middle-class working Americans will be poor or near poor after they reach the age of 65. Most currently have inadequate 401(k)-type accounts or no retirement account at all. For good reason, voters tell pollsters that their top economic concern is retirement security.

Read the full op-ed at The New York Times.