How to keep long-term care from bankrupting future retirees

Our daily roundup of retirement news your clients may be thinking about.

How to keep long-term care from bankrupting us
A report from the Bipartisan Policy Center shows that long-term care poses a serious risk to retirees' financial security, as the costs are likely to increase and people have not saved to cover this need in their advance years, according to this article on Forbes. To help people prepare for long-term care costs in retirement, employers should be encouraged to provide their workers affordable, simplified “retirement long-term care insurance” with auto enrollment feature for workers age 45 and older, says the report. 401(k) participants should also be allowed to tap into the plan without tax penalties to buy long-term care insurance coverage.

nursing home1.jpg
Pensioners sit and rest inside the Polish care home where they live in Sloneczna Polana, Poland, on Saturday, Aug. 24, 2013. *** ADD SECOND SENTENCE *** Photographer: Bartek Sadowski/Bloomberg

7 retirement planning tips for millennials, Gen X and boomers
Clients from different generations will be in a better position to develop a successful retirement lifestyle if they start planning for the golden years as soon as they can, according to this article on MarketWatch. They would also improve their retirement prospects by having a good relationship with their accountant who is knowledgeable about the tax rules on retirement savings, and by avoiding making any withdrawals from their retirement accounts. They should also strive to pay off all debt as soon as possible and minimize risk in their retirement portfolio.

Hey, retirees: Go and spend some money
Many seniors are underspending their retirement savings to the point that they miss out on many things that they are supposed to enjoy in their golden years, writes an expert on CNBC. As such, tapping into their retirement nest egg to enjoy some of these things may not hurt, writes the expert. "My advice to go spend some money is based on my philosophy that because we get to go around only once in this life, we should limit the 'I wish we would have …' thoughts before it's too late. A financial life-planning approach should aim to limit the regrets they may have at the end of life."

Young Americans are buying up ETFs. Here's why the rest of us should follow suit
A survey by BlackRock has found that a majority of millennial investors are more likely than their older counterparts to invest in exchange-traded funds, according to this article on Motley Fool. ETFs are a type of index funds that are passively managed, that's why they have lower expense ratios and investment costs compared with actively managed mutual funds. Clients may be better off investing in ETFs than individual stocks, as they have limited exposure to companies' poor performance.

How do I know how much I'll need in retirement?
The replacement ratio approach could be a good way to make a good estimate of the amount of money that people will need to cover their expenses in retirement, according to this article on CNNMoney. The amount of retirement funds should be based on the clients' actual expenses after they retire, but having an accurate figure could be difficult especially if they are many years away from retirement.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Retirement planning ETFs
MORE FROM EMPLOYEE BENEFIT NEWS