From Paycheck to Payout: Wealth and Income in Retirement

Session Submission Type: Complete Session

Abstract

Is the US retirement system delivering for seniors’ living standards in retirement? To address this question, this session’s first paper employs IRS SOI data to track recent changes in retiree income, finding continued improvements. Looking forward, the second paper considers impacts of Social Security reforms that are focused on benefit taxation. The third paper explores the interaction among household indebtedness, wealth, and retiree wellbeing. The last paper considers how the use of annuities has evolved over the past quarter century, as defined contribution plans have gained prominence in the private-sector employer-sponsored plan space.

We invite the audience to consider people’s recent retirement experiences, ask questions and discuss all four papers.

Subject Area

• Retirement, Savings, Bequests, and Estate taxes

Chair

• Sarah Holden, Investment Company Institute (ICI)

Discussants

• Lindsay Jacobs

• Leora Friedberg, lf6s@virginia.edu

Individual Presentations

• Getting Better: Changes in Retiree Income Over Time - Peter Brady, Investment Company Institute (ICI); Steven Bass, Investment Company Institute (ICI)

• Simulating Reforms to Taxation of Social Security Benefits - Max Ghenis, max@policyengine.org; Nikhil Woodruff, PolicyEngine; Pavel Makarchuk, PolicyEngine

• Is There a Tipping Point: Objective and Subjective Measures of Debt and Retirees’ Wellbeing - Sarah Holden, Investment Company Institute (ICI); Jason Seligman, Investment Company Institute; Emily Williams, emily.williams@ici.org

• New Evidence on the Intensive Margins of Annuity Demand - Brent J. Davis, TIAA Institute; James Poterba, MIT and NBER; David P. Richardson, TIAA Institute; Jeffrey R Brown, University of Illinois and NBER

Session Organizer

• Jason Seligman, Investment Company Institute