@article {11086,
	title = {Retirement Security and Financial Decision Making},
	number = {WR-1224-CFPB},
	year = {2019},
	institution = {RAND Corporation},
	address = {Santa Monica, CA},
	abstract = {Financial planning for retirement in the United States has never been more important. Americans now have greater control on how much to accumulate during their working years, and how much to deaccumulate during their retirement. With greater control also comes great responsibility for the individual. As this individual-level responsibility has increased so has the relevance of making the right claiming decision about Social Security, which for many will be the only source of life-time income protected against inflation. Longer life spans, and especially longer post-retirement life spans, have also raised long-term care costs for households, further requiring careful financial planning for retirement.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau{\textquoteright}s Office of Older Americans seeks to provide older Americans with resources to help them plan for their retirement. To do so, they also need a greater knowledge of which populations are the most at risk. In this report, we seek to identify leading indicators of financial insecurity in retirement that can assist the Office of Older Americans in 1) identifying key decisions prior to retirement that may be correlated with insecurity in later years, and 2) identifying populations who may benefit most from targeted information.

Individuals and households who are financially secure are able to meet their financial goals. In this report, we develop three measures of financial security, related to three common financial goals, among retired Health and Retirement Study (HRS) respondents. These measures cover ability to pay for regular expenses, ability to pay for long-term care costs, and the ability to bequest. Since the HRS follows the same households over time, interviewing them every two years, we investigate whether these financial security measures are associated with decisions made leading up to and during retirement. Doing so allows us to track which decisions are associated with more secure finances as retired individuals continue to age. By examining these financial security measures and how certain financial decisions are related to them, we explore whether current retirees{\textquoteright} are able to balance between regular expenses, maintaining sufficient wealth to cover the costs of long-term care, should the need arise, protecting against longevity risks, and leaving a bequest to their heirs.},
	keywords = {personal savings, retirement and retirement benefits},
	doi = {https://doi.org/10.7249/WR1224},
	author = {Philip Armour and Carman, Katherine and Hung, Angela}
}
@book {9608,
	title = {Impact of Divorce on Retirement Security},
	series = {Working Papers},
	year = {2018},
	pages = {66},
	publisher = {RAND Corporation},
	organization = {RAND Corporation},
	abstract = {In this paper, we consider the implications of divorce on retirement security. We introduce a theory that highlights how specialization within a divorcing household and timing of divorce relative to planned timing of retirement savings can have a negative impact on retirement security. Using panel data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we evaluate differences in accumulated total and liquid retirement wealth at retirement ages. We replicate past findings that find a negative relationship between ever-divorced individuals and asset accumulation, particularly for women. We find that the negative relationship in our sample between wealth and divorce without remarriage is worse for women who divorce in their 30s than for women who divorce in their 50s whereas for men the relationship is worse for men who divorce in their 50s compared to men who divorce in their 30s. Using the household nature of our data, we compare assets of households before a separation leading to a divorce to those of each individual after that separation. We find evidence of swapping and liquidation of retirement and housing assets: 51 percent of separating households with liquid pre-separation retirement assets will have at least one household member with zero liquid retirement assets after separation. Finally, we develop a methodology to evaluate whether near-retirement divorce impacts retirement decumulation. We conduct a differences-indifferences matching analysis that assigns individuals who eventually divorce within the HRS to similar, but non-divorcing, individuals at first interview. This analysis controls for observed differences between the average divorcee and the average continuously married person, as well as permanent unobserved differences. We find that separated women are more likely to delay Social Security retirement benefit claiming until age 65 or 66, but otherwise we find no significant evidence that divorce is associated with differential decumulation of liquid retirement assets.

},
	keywords = {Divorce, Marriage, Retirement Planning and Satisfaction, Savings},
	doi = {10.7249/WR1201},
	url = {https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR1201.html},
	author = {Hung, Angela and Knapp, David}
}
@article {9149,
	title = {Drawing down retirement wealth: Interactions between Social Security wealth and private retirement savings},
	number = {WR-1165},
	year = {2017},
	month = {01/2017},
	institution = {RAND Corporation},
	address = {Santa Monica, CA},
	keywords = {Consumption and Savings, Retirement Planning and Satisfaction, Social Security},
	doi = {10.7249/WR1165},
	url = {http://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR1165.html},
	author = {Philip Armour and Hung, Angela}
}
@article {9141,
	title = {Household Retirement Saving: The Location of Savings Between Spouses},
	year = {2017},
	institution = {RAND Corporation},
	address = {Santa Monica, CA},
	abstract = {Retirement planning is often a joint household decision-making process, and therefore the household is often the more appropriate unit of analysis. However, retirement savings in tax advantaged accounts are held in the name of one individual. While spouses have rights to these assets in the case of divorce and in most cases of death, the separation of accounts in name may cause couples to treat their accounts as separate, with each spouse making decisions separately.

In order to optimize retirement planning, couples should consider the entire household portfolio together, accounting for the characteristics of the retirement accounts, the age of the spouses, and income differences between spouses. With separate accounts, one spouse may not be aware of the contributions or assets accumulated in the other spouse{\textquoteright}s accounts. This may lead to sub-optimal decision-making, as individuals in a couple may not fully optimize across all available retirement accounts.

Little is known about how households divide retirement contributions and assets between spouses. In this project, we investigate how households locate contributions across tax deferred savings accounts that are nominally held in one spouse{\textquoteright}s name and how these decisions may impact accumulated assets. In particular we first document who within a couple nominally holds retirement assets. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study and Survey of Consumer Finances, we find that household retirement assets and contributions are more likely to be located in accounts held in the husband{\textquoteright}s name or the primary earner{\textquoteright}s name. In our regression analysis, we find that the location of contributions is largely driven by the distribution of earnings within couples.},
	keywords = {Consumption and Savings, Marriage, Retirement Planning and Satisfaction},
	doi = {10.7249/WR1166},
	url = {http://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR1166.html},
	author = {Carman, Katherine and Hung, Angela}
}
