With the choppy growth of the U.S. and international economies over the past few years, chief financial officers (CFOs) face many headwinds. They are searching harder for new ways to grow revenues, cut costs, and measure and monitor business performance.
One of the biggest challenges CFOs are encountering, however, is not economic but demographic: how best to cope with America’s aging workforce and the higher costs associated with older workers for health care, disability and workers’ compensation insurance. Increasingly, CFOs want to know if their workers are on target to retire and, if not, what financial advisors and retirement plan providers can do to help them get there.
Every day, approximately 8,000 Americans reach age 65, according to a June 2014 report by the U.S. Census Bureau. While 65 is the traditional retirement age, eight in 10 workers say they plan to delay retirement, as reported in the 2015 Retirement Confidence Survey by the Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI), and one in 10 say they expect to never retire.
While Americans are famous for their work ethic and can-do attitude, their shyness about retirement has little to do with any lingering love affair with work. Many Americans simply cannot afford to retire, especially baby boomers who have skimped on retirement savings.
Twenty-seven percent of boomers are confident they will have enough savings to last through retirement, down from 33 percent in 2013 and 37 percent in 2011, and four in 10 boomers say they have nothing saved for retirement, reports the Insured Retirement Institute's, “Boomer Expectations for Retirement 2015.”
The longer workers linger on the job past 65, though, the higher employers’ costs rise. Let us count the ways:
• Employer insurance premiums increase drastically as employees age. The average monthly premium for health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act is $161 for individuals ages 18-24 compared to $519 for individuals ages 55-64, according to the eHealth Health Insurance Price Index.
• Older Employees are more likely to become disabled. Compared with younger workers, older employees are more likely to become disabled, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation, May-August 2010. And the Social Security Administration reports that older workers have more expensive claims than their younger counterparts: The average cost of monthly disability claims rises from nearly $600 per month for Americans younger than 25 to nearly $1,200 for those ages 55-59 and approximately $1,300 for those 60-65 according to the 2014 Council for Disability Awareness Long Term Disability Claims Review.
• Medical costs for older workers are also higher. The average annual health care expenditure by adults ages 19-44 is $3,370. Those costs rise steadily so adults ages 55-64 pay $7,787 and adults ages 65-74 pay $10,778 according to “Healthcare Facts.” by James D. Agresti.
Now consider that the EBRI estimates that 32 million baby boomers (ages 50-68)—a population the size of California—are unprepared for retirement. It quickly becomes apparent that many CFOs may be thinking about their own retirement and how it can’t come soon enough.