M. Barton Waring
Laurence B. Siegel sat down for an interview with Barbara S. Petitt, CFA, editor of the Financial Analysts Journal to discuss the retirement crisis — the subject of the FAJ's 70th anniversary issue. According to Siegel, there are two things we can do collectively to address the crisis: "save more" and "support efforts to rationalize the systems of pensions and savings in whatever country we happen to live."
Despite thousands of scholarly and practical articles, we still have a retirement crisis. But, reviewing the literature, it seems we have both the intellectual tools to avoid a retirement crisis and many (not all) of the needed institutional arrangements.
Retirement security is a key area of focus for the Future of Finance initiative at CFA institute, and we hosted an online forum featuring a panel of experts with varied backgrounds and perspectives to examine the size and scope of the public pension funding gap, debate its causes, and to consider potential solutions.
Over the past decade, the funding gap for US public pension plans has widened considerably, and many state and local plans today find themselves in desperate straits, facing an aggregate shortfall in excess of $4 trillion.
In the United States, state and local governments’ defined benefit pension plans are underfunded by more than $4 trillion, threatening the financial security of approximately 8 million retirees and 14 million workers, and taking a fiscal toll on states and municipalities.
Defined benefit plans are in a state of crisis as accrued liabilities are expanding, resulting in companies struggling to pay for the increased funding costs. Learn ways that these defined benefit funds can be modified to provide adequate benefits for employees and acceptable cost for employers.