Recently, there has been a major uptick in articles, papers, and releases about retirement planning and retirement income. By our account, the number of stories about these topics more than doubled in the month of July alone, and the trend continues into early August. Set out below are links to a few recent postings.
The good news is retirement experts are seeing the benefits of converting “savings to income”. The bad news is there is no consistent approach, and even a slower adoption rate. What accounts for that?
The challenge may be that some retirement income solutions are “product-based” while others involve a change in practice models.
Interestingly, a recent article in the New Yorker magazine was about the faster adoption in the 19th century of anesthetics (immediate impact on patients) than antiseptic procedures (longer term impact requiring a change in the medical practice model). Perhaps retirement income planning is following a similar path – product innovation will be adopted at a faster rate than any practice model innovations.
However, while products may have flaws that even the wisest researchers can overlook, a practice model change is about a process that is often hardest to change. So until all elements of a practice model, such as licensing, regulations regarding projections, platform support and technology, compensation models, etc., can change, improvement in real retirement income solutions will be less than what may otherwise be possible.