Age and Wisdom: Retirement Readiness in the U.S., U.K. and Australia

In 2015, the American Academy of Actuaries, the Australian Actuaries Institute and the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries in the United Kingdom identified longevity risk-the risk of outliving one’s retirement income-as a major issue in all three countries and published a white paper, The Challenge of Longevity Risk, to alert the public and policy makers to their concerns. In 2016-2017, the actuarial groups undertook a follow-up to their original paper by sponsoring a survey of working-age individuals in each country to assess their preparation for various retirement risks, including longevity risk. The results of this survey were published in a 2017 report, Retirement Readiness: A Comparative Analysis of Australia, the United Kingdom & the United States.  Recognizing important differences across these three countries in history, culture, policies and practices, the survey sought to identify significant differences in the perceptions of and planning for a secure retirement. The survey also compared responses across various demographic categories, including gender, age, income and education. This article seeks to explore more deeply the differences in response by age in that original survey, focusing on the U.S. respondents in the 2016 survey but with a comparative look at the responses from Australia and the U.K.