Retirement Plan

AARP has published a tip sheet called Money Matters that offers advice on spending down one's assets in retirement. The tip sheet addresses a number of areas, including: When to claim Social Security . Asset Allocation . Annuities. Withdrawal rates. The role of one's home in retirement planning . For each topic, AARP offers a description of common or current practices, conventional wisdom and their general guidance. With respect to annuities, AARP notes that most people pay very little...

The Street reports that several states are working on initiatives that would provide broader access to retirement savings vehicles. Universal Voluntary Retirement Accounts would serve as inexpensive IRAs that are combined with a state's existing retirement system. One fundamental objective would involve increasing participation rates among parts of the population that have limited access to retirement plans: "According to the EOI, two out of three low-wage workers and one in four high-wage...

Annuities are all about producing income that will last according to P. Brett Hammond. Hammond is the chief investment strategist for TIAA-CREF asset management. In Hammond's view wealth creation and asset accumulation are fine, but producing income should be front and center when thinking about retirement: There's nothing wrong with wealth creation. In fact, it's fabulous. But the problem is if you're only thinking about wealth creation for retirement income, you may forget about all the other...