Summer Reading

Summer Reading
2019 was the year the Government announced a review into the retirement income system. While waiting for the report, which is due to be handed to Government by June 2020, here are some of our recommendations for summer reading covering retirement, longevity and related topics.

The Australian Government Actuary released updated Life Tables in 2019. Stephen Huppert looked at Australia’s increasing life expectancy and Jeremy Cooper warned that Understanding life expectancies is important when helping people prepare for retirement.  

Australia’s superannuation funds are slowly turning their attention to their members approaching retirement.In Save-Save-Save, But Then What? Financial Structure and Spending in Retirement, the UCLA Anderson Review looked at applying the research of Shlomo Benartzi, Hal HershfieldSuzanne Shu and Robert Zeithammer to the challenges of decumulating and spending in retirement. 

Many of the innovative retirement income products involve pooling of mortality credits. Two papers help explain how these products work, one from David Orford and the other from Richard Fulmer. 

 Another interesting article relevant to the Retirement Income Review is this one from Rafal Chomik that finds that we’re delaying major life events, and our retirement income system hasn’t caught up. 

Understanding that we are all not the same in retirement. The American Psychological Association released research looking at how personality traits affect retirement spending.  

Many will remember 2019 as the year of the MySuper Heat Maps which put the focus back on member outcomes. Jim Hennington wrote that member outcomes should be about retirement outcomes

As we head into 2020, the Optimum Pensions team will continue to fight the good fight to help super funds achieve the ultimate member outcome –  for all Australians to enjoy a comfortable retirement.

Happy Holidays.

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The Optimum Pensions Real Lifetime Pension is an investment linked lifetime income stream where the assets stay in investment options managed by the superannuation fund but longevity risk is transferred to a global reinsurer. Find out more Real Lifetime Pension.

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