Retirement

Numerous studies find that millions of Americans are under-saving for retirement, and psychology and behavioral economics have taught us that there are well-understood problems in decision-making that can cause people to not put enough away for retirement and other needs.

It’s hard to imagine that there’s a tax credit that can lower a taxpayer’s bill if he or she saves for retirement in a tax-favored retirement account. This may sound to be too good to be true. But it is true. The IRS has a tax credit that pays people to save for retirement.

The Department of Labor has given a green light to the growing number of states interested in pursuing their own retirement initiatives.

It’s now a familiar story: as jobs with good employer-sponsored benefits slowly disappear, policymakers struggle to formulate a coherent response.

Providing Americans the tools to manage the risk of outliving one’s savings in retirement will be a major challenge of the 21st century.

Because the financial situations and goals of American savers are diverse, they will need a variety of products and services to secure their income.