The Society of Actuaries (SOA) just published a series of short whitepapers or “briefs” that focus on some of the major decisions that are encountered by retirees.

This is a great resource for consumers who are seeking objective content produced by experts.

The Society has clearly made efforts to create content that is accessible to a non professional audience.  The briefs are clear, short and focus on consumer-relevant topics such as “when should I retire.”

There are 11 briefs, and the topics include:

Retirees and those saving for retirement should think of themselves as the managers of their own personal pension plan.  

Many people used to have access to a traditional, defined benefit pension plan through their employers.  With a defined benefit pension plan, someone else (an employer or professional managers hired by an employer) assumes responsibility for managing plan contributions, investments and income distributions. 

Retirees have every reason to be an extremely risk averse bunch.  After all, most of them have an immediate or near-term need to draw income from their assets.  This need for income should result in zero tolerance for investment risk or reduction in value of the assets that are intended to produce the retirement income.

What options are available to a soon-to-be retired household that is financially constrained?  What levers can be pulled if desired retirement spending is not realistic in light of retirement savings?

The odds of financial success in retirement for the typical American household are less than ten percent.

This is based on the financial profile of an American household that would be considered statistically average.  We developed the financial profile of an average American retiree in a previous article (click here to read).  

There is a strong case to be made for health care as the linchpin of retirement planning.  Virtually every major aspect of the retirement planning process is somehow correlated to or contingent on health status.  For example, health status has an impact on each of the following retirement planning components:

Tim Harrington is the Chairman and CEO of start-up eRollover.

Tim is a seasoned technology and consumer marketing entrepreneur.  Among Tim’s accomplishments is the ecommerce company Fogdog Sports--a venture he led from inception through successful IPO and post-IPO merger.

We had the opportunity to speak with Tim before his presentation at the Finovate conference in San Francisco.

Lorry Stensrud, a seasoned executive turned entrepreneur, is on the leading-edge of retirement income product development with his new Venture Achaean Financial.

Achaean’s Income Plus+ product provides a relatively high level of guaranteed starting income while maintaining both liquidity and upside potential.

Read on for a glimpse into the most recent generation of product development in the retirement income industry.

Jerry Golden--often referred to as the father of variable life insurance and variable annuities--has had a distinguished career as an innovator and entrepreneur in both the insurance and personal retirement businesses.

Jerry most recently spent four years as president of the Income Management Strategies Division at MassMutual after selling his business to the company in June, 2005.

Since leaving MassMutual in May, 2009, Jerry has been actively developing a new venture which will deliver yet another set of innovations to the personal retirement marketplace.

Francois Gadenne is the Chairman and Executive Director of the Retirement Income Industry Association (RIIA).

Formed in 2006, RIIA is bringing together the leading minds and resources in the relatively young retirement income industry.  RIIA members include leading academics, banks, insurers, fund companies, financial advisors, brokerage houses, researchers, technology companies, marketing firms, consulting firms and media.