Paycheck For Life Is Key To Retirment Security, Says MetLife CEO

Among the sources that Henrikson used when he cited these facts are the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the Kaiser Family Foundation, and America's Health Insurance Plans.

Henrikson described the disconnects between what people want, what they are doing and what they actually need. There are 68 million Americans who do not have life coverage and many of those who do have it are grossly underinsured, he said.

For example, Henrikson noted that Met Life had 53 corporate clients in the World Trade Center. Many, he continued, were young and had families but were covered for less than 3 times their pay.

However, Henrikson said, when people are asked why they buy life insurance, their response is: "to replace income that will last if I die." He wondered, "How long do they expect to be dead?" because the coverage chosen does not meet the income planning need.

Although he noted there is a cost associated with buying an annuity for income planning, Henrikson said that saving on one's own to provide future income is not as efficient as being part of a mortality pool. Additionally, he continued, the average retiree would have to save at least a third more to match what the retiree would receive from a mortality pool. And, the retiree who chose to go it alone and save would still risk outliving income, Henrikson said.

Even as guaranteed retirement income becomes less certain, consumer behavior indicates that the public is increasingly risk averse and is responding more strongly to guarantees and products that have guarantees associated with it, said the MetLife executive.

Part of the reason for this interest in guarantees, Henrikson continued, is the decline of the defined benefit plan. During congressional testimony, he said, he was asked how the decline in defined benefit plans could be reversed, to which he replied: "The cat's out of the bag. They're gone, gone, gone."

Henrikson said that for insurers, "retirement income will be the single largest opportunity now and in the future.

"No longer will the focus be on a bag of cash as an end game. Rather, the focus will be on a paycheck for life," he concluded.