“People need to understand that their retirement debt can be more volatile than their mortgage debt,” said Chip Castille, BlackRock’s chief retirement strategist. BlackRock has a retirement index at its website that helps calculate the amount.

BlackRock’s CoRI is a set of BlackRock indexes. They track the estimated amount one will need to save or invest today in order to get $1 of annual income at a future date.

“What does retirement mean? It means people will live longer and need to assume much more of their retirement responsibilities,” said Castille.

BlackRock officials said defined contribution plans should be strengthened, and this might include requiring that workers save for retirement, as in Chile and Australia. They also argue for persuading small businesses without DC plans to start one. They advocate increasing tax breaks for those without plans.

Complicating the problem is that people relying on bonds are not getting the returns they expected, added Russ Koesterich, BlackRock chief investment strategist. “We are in a low-rate environment and I don’t see that changing.” He added that this tends to increase one’s retirement debt, the amount need to fund a retirement.

Koesterich said portfolio managers should look beyond traditional bond offerings, possibly using other kinds of bonds. “We recommend a broader range of asset class,” he said.

He also said that most retirees, especially younger ones with many years ahead of them, need to continue to keep an equity component.

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