Longevity

Geneticists at Stanford University recently published the results of an experiment demonstrating that acquired traits can be passed along to offspring. Scientists had previously rejected the notion that offspring could inherit characteristics that a parent organism developed during their lifetime. The Stanford scientists demonstrate that an organism’s behavior and environment are factors that do influence the genes it passes along to offspring. The Stanford epigenetics study focused on...

Defined benefit pension plans are the traditional and increasingly rare type of pension plans offered through employers. In contrast to defined contribution pension plans such as the 401(k), participants in defined benefit (“DB”) plans receive contractually guaranteed income and assume none of the risks (investment risk, interest rate risk , longevity risk , etc) associated with producing that lifetime income stream. The problem is that defined benefit plans are scarce, and many of...

A very interesting article from Financial Times columnist David Stevenson suggests that investors are making the very common mistake of missing sight of the forest for the trees. In this case, the trees are the daily ups and downs of the stock market. Market volatility naturally draws many people into a sort of short-term obsession with undulating asset prices and portfolio values. Stevenson makes that very valid point that this short-term obsession obscures larger, longer-term and likely...

A recent research report from Swiss Re suggests that life expectancy increases over the past several decades have been consistently underestimated. The report, titled “ A window into the future: Understanding and predicting longevity ,” examines the traditional methods of forecasting life expectancy—both of which are largely based on historical trends. For example, the “blending approach” combines historical data with assumptions about the future. A second approach...

There is an interesting blog that appears to be affiliated with the British pension consulting firm Redington. The “Red Blog” offers pension-related content from a group of authors who are both formally and informally associated with Redington. Not surprisingly, longevity trends and longevity risk are prominent topics on the Red Blog. The design of the blog and the visual representation of dry and fairly abstract topics are unique. For example, this graphic provides an interesting...