5 Retirement Genius Ideas for Helping the World Retire Better

Life insurers could help the world save one of the critical problems facing governments all around the world:

Analysts at the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies and the Aegon Center for Longevity of Retirement talk about how they would reboot the world's retirement systems in a new report on retirement in the 21st century.

The authors include the results of a survey of 16,000 workers and retirees in 15 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia.

(Related: How 3 Generations Prepare for Retirement)

The analysts list steps that governments, and societies as a whole, should take to make things better. They suggest that one thing countries can do is simply to give employers more positive ideas about aging, and about what older people can do.

“Older individuals have wisdom and experience to share with younger
generations,” the analysts write.

But ”stereotypical views of older people, aging, and retirement portrayed
in the media and too frequently part of our daily conversation… are a
significant barrier for older people who may want and/or need to stay
in the workforce longer to save and prepare for a secure retirement,” the analysts write.

The analysts also include new survey data on use of life insurance and annuities in retirement.

This is what they found, for example, when the survey participants were asked about financial strategies for preparing for retirement:

• 46% mentioned Social Security or other government programs.
• 38% mentioned banking services, such as certificates of deposit.
• 31% mentioned life insurance.
• 9% mentioned fixed annuities.
• 6% mentioned long-term care insurance.
• 5% mentioned variable annuities.

Financial professionals might be interested in a section with the title “Forging the new social contract.” In that section, the analysts include ideas for reframing retirement systems that could, in some cases, change, eliminate or create markets for commercial retirement savings products.

For a look at some of those ideas, and how they might life agents and brokers, see the idea card gallery above.

— Read also, on ThinkAdvisor:

• The Oldest Members of Generation Z Are Now About 20
• The Unique Retirement Challenges of Women
• Survey Team Finds Annuitization Option Gap

— Connect with ThinkAdvisor Life/Health on Facebook and Twitter.