Talking Points

Politically Correct

S&P 500 boards appointed 413 new ­independent directors in the 2020 proxy year, according to consulting firm Spencer Stuart. Fifty-nine percent were women and minority men, tying the 2019 record for the year with the most diverse new independent directors. All S&P 500 boards have at least one woman for the first time, but new directors represent only 8% of all S&P 500 directors, consistent with prior years.

Part-Timers’ Retirement Confidence Suffers, Full-Timers’ Improves

Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald, director of financial security research at the National Institute of Ageing at Ryerson University, has found that conventional replacement rates and living standard continuity were incorrectly correlated. Earnings are not the only factor, she says. Look at a participant’s spouse’s earnings, also government transfers, investment outcomes, house ownership, debt, tax-exempt savings, etc. “No percentage will capture this entire picture. Seventy percent is insufficient information.”

Earnings Insufficient