The COVID-19 pandemic could cut the death rate for the older Americans now collecting pension benefits, individual annuity benefits and Social Security — but it probably won't have enough of an effect to hurt Social Security's trust fund.
Gal Wettstein and other researchers affiliated with the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College have published that assessment in a new paper on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on U.S. survivors' mortality level. The list of authors includes Alicia Munnell, the director of the Center for Retirement Research.
Some economists have argued that the pandemic might have sharply increased the average life expectancy for the U.S. retirees who are alive now, by killing a high percentage of the older Americans who had diabetes, cancer, kidney disease and other serious health problems, and leaving the country with a healthier retiree population.
The pandemic came to light in the United States in January 2020. Wettstein and his colleagues used U.S. federal government health status survey data, and death data for 2020, to look for pandemic-related "selection effects."
"This analysis shows that while, directionally, the selection effect is likely to reduce mortality in the near future, the magnitude of the impact of selection on near-term mortality rates is modest," the researchers write. "Mortality is anticipated to decline by around 1 percentage point among those ages 90-99, and less at younger ages."
For people in their 90s, a 1-percentage-point drop in mortality would reduce 10-year mortality to about 90% for women and 94% for men.
What It Means
The COVID-19 pandemic will complicate efforts to help clients use annuities and other arrangements to manage longevity risk.
The pandemic could still kill them early.
But, just the fact that your clients are still alive increases the odds that they could stay alive longer than expected.
