Cohen is replacing Richard (Dick) Davies, who has left the firm.
He is responsible for the leadership, strategic direction and growth of
Russell’s institutional DC business. Based in Russell’s Chicago office, Cohen
assumed the role on December 9 and reports to Greg Gilbert, CEO, Americas
Institutional.
Most recently Cohen helped steer Russell through enhancements to
the Russell LifePoints Institutional Target Date Funds, implementation of
several custom target-date mandates, the introduction of the Russell Real Asset
Fund for qualified institutional investors, and the launch of Russell Adaptive
Retirement Accounts. In keeping with his focus on DC product and industry
innovation, Cohen often lends his expertise on the topics of plan design, the
incorporation of alternative assets into target date funds or stand-alone
investment options, automatic enrollment strategies designed to overcome
investor inertia, the next generation of target date investing, and steps plan
sponsors can take to evolve their 401(k) programs from “good enough” to “best
in class.”
“American workers are increasingly relying on DC plans for their
retirement security, but too few are saving appropriately for retirement, and
plan investment menus often fall short of providing an institutional quality
approach,” says Cohen. “Russell is well positioned to assist plan sponsors in
addressing this challenge and meeting their fiduciary obligations.”
Cohen is a member of
the Department of Labor’s Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension
Benefit Plans (ERISA Advisory Council), a 15-member council providing advice on
policies and regulations affecting employee benefit plans governed by the
Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Cohen is also actively involved with
other industry organizations such as the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment
Association (DCIIA) and the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).
By using this site you agree to our network wide Privacy Policy.
Misconceptions about the Affordable Care Act, the need for
long-term care and how to address the particular needs of women savers are
opportunities for key discussions.
More than half of pre-retirees express alarm at what health
care costs may do to their retirement plans, a survey finds. An annual survey
by Nationwide Financial finds a 30% jump in the number of affluent pre-retirees
who used the word “terrified” to describe their anxieties about paying for
health care costs in retirement. A year ago, in the same survey, fewer than
half of pre-retirees used that word.
But people are not discussing retirement with an adviser,
according to the “2013 Nationwide Financial Health Care and Long-Term Care
Costs in Retirement Consumer Survey.” Of those who have talked with an adviser,
just 22% discussed health care costs not covered by Medicare in retirement.
Long-term care is an emerging trend advisers need to
understand, says John Carter, president and CEO of
Nationwide Retirement Plans at Nationwide Financial.
About seven out of 10 people surveyed agree that other
people will need nursing home care but do not see themselves needing it,
Carter told PLANADVISER. As people live longer, however, the need for such
arrangements is on the rise—especially for women, who live longer. The vast majority
of long-term care claims are for women, Carter says.
It’s a well-known fact that women live longer than men, but
they also have a unique set of circumstances and needs that can affect their
choices and ability to retire. The survey found that women are twice as likely
as men to believe they will never retire (36% vs. 18%). On average, they have
not been in the work force as long as men because they are primary caregivers of
children, parents and in-laws.
Care-giving has cut into women’s corporate plan benefits and
savings, Carter says, and also helps keep them in the work force later. “If I
were an adviser today, I’d really want to think about how I approach male versus
female clients,” he says. ”You could guess there’s more stress on women. There’s
a lot on their shoulders, and advisers should understand that as well as the
different approaches and different planning concerns to address. It would be
interesting to measure the stress of women versus that of men.”
More Education
Advisers in the 401(k) space want more education, information
and thought leadership about the role of health care in holistic retirement planning,
Carter notes. Medicaid as it affects pre-retirees and retirees, and the
different strategies for Social Security are also topics that participants need
help with, according to Carter.
Traditional retirement discussions center on accumulation,
Carter says. But the survey respondents said they were more concerned about not
understanding the Affordable Care Act (ACA), discomfort in discussing long-term
care and not knowing what their out-of-pocket expenses for health care would be
in retirement.
As the need for such care has increased, so have people’s
misconceptions: “Something as simple as the belief that Medicare pays for
long-term care—which it doesn’t—and the confusion between Medicare and Medicaid,”
Carter says. Clients more frequently ask advisers if they should give their
assets away in order to access certain benefits.
But these people are the ones who also say their greatest
fear in retirement is losing control. “So, of course, that is the biggest loss of
control: losing control of your assets,” Carter says. Many factors, from
divorce to adult children in need of assistance to illness, can mean an
unexpected drain on a retiree’s finances.
“Whether it is the economy, concerns about the implementation
of the Affordable Care Act or
skyrocketing health care costs, our survey shows America’s workers are
increasingly concerned about how they will fund their health care costs in
retirement,” Carter says. “More are realizing they can’t count on someone else
to fix this problem and that they will have to fund their own health care
costs in retirement.”
Carter says the survey yielded some interesting facts and a
few surprises. “Four out of five Baby Boomers say they don’t expect their
children to support them in retirement,” he observed. The reality is that 29
states have laws making the children responsible for their parents’ nursing
home bills, if the parents are unable to pay. The survey found that more than
half of Boomers (57%) are confident that states cannot force their children to
pay these expenses.
When to Retire?
The ACA has already affected how people choose to time their
retirement, another interesting finding.
A quarter of Boomers (26%) do not expect to retire, the
survey found, up from 22% in 2012. Two in five Boomers also say they will delay
retirement if they had to buy their own health insurance. One in four say they
will delay retirement in order to keep adult children on an employer-based
health insurance plan.
The subject of health care costs in retirement continues to
be a sore one, and only 22% of those surveyed have discussed them with a
financial professional. “We have a lot of work to do there,” Carter notes.
Nationwide’s tools include calculators that advisers can use
to provide an estimate of out-of-pocket expenses for health care as well as
long-term care costs in retirement. One tool provides estimates for both.
Updates to these calculators give the average costs, state by state, for a
silver plan in the ACA.
Carter says that another surprise was the use of these
assessments. “The first year we had those, we thought we’d do about 3,000
assessments,” he says. “We did close to 10,000, and now we’re up to 13,000.”
The ACA is an opportunity to reach out to plan participants to give them an
idea of their future needs.
Americans will have to be more realistic in planning for
long-term care and health care costs in retirement, Carter feels, as well as
taking more responsibility for these costs in retirement. Plan sponsors and
advisers must help participants take a holistic view of retirement, Carter says.
“It’s not just an annuity or pensions over here, and something else there—you
need to look at the whole picture. I don’t know how you talk about retirement
without talking about all of these factors.”
“The 2013 Nationwide Financial Health Care and Long-Term
Care Costs in Retirement Consumer Survey” was conducted online in the U.S. by
Harris Interactive on behalf of Nationwide Financial between September 24 and
October 1. Respondents were U.S. adults age 50 and up with annual household
incomes of $150,000 or higher.