Global Pension Crisis: Unfunded Liabilities and How We Can Fill the Gap
The world is facing an economic time bomb.As the generational bubble of the Baby Boomers begins to retire, it is increasingly evident that governments, corporations, and individuals have failed to adequately prepare for the obligations and needs of this giant cohort. Retirees are outliving actuarial life expectancies, pension liabilities are skyrocketing, pension plans are chronically underfunded, and medical costs continue to rise. The United States alone can expect unfunded liabilities to exceed $7 trillion over the coming years—and it's in better shape than many other developed nations.Even as the American economy shows signs of sustained recovery, many states and local governments will still experience sharp increases in pension fund payments over the coming years. In fact, the next forty years of the world's economic life will be dominated by one underlying theme: how we deal with the retirement income security of a growing, aging, and longer-lived global population. It's a problem we can't ignore and can't outrun, impacting virtually everyone on Earth.Global Pension Crisislooks at this situation and offers practical advice for retirement plan managers and financial advisors, while also explaining what people and nations can do to strengthen pensions, improve retirement outlooks, and prevent similar crises in the future. It looks at this looming disaster not only through a macro-level lens, but also provides a micro-level look at how the issue will impact individual retirement income and retirement planning.Global Pension Crisissuggests difficult choices that must be made, as well as personal preparedness for anyone concerned about retirement. It explains worst-case scenarios if nothing is done to solve this looming problem, including the growing anger of young workers forced to toil to maintain their parents' lifestyle—a lifestyle they may find forever beyond their reach. This "Privilege Gap" that is being created may well lead to one of our next great challenges: avoiding generational warfare.Global Pension Crisisargues that in an interconnected global economy, none of us can hide from this problem, and no single nation can solve it alone. But solve it we must, because this is much more than a financial problem we can fix with tax reform or kick down the road; it's a pervasive issue that directly affects the quality of life of our families, friends, and coworkers.