Financial Security for Seniors

By Karalee Hargrove

Pension planning and looking at calculated relationships should be the guide to seniors' financial security.

California is fortunate because the state still attracts young people. Their productivity and taxes will help provide services for the elderly. It makes sense therefore to continue to provide opportunities for young people.

California is also expanding relationships with China and India where the populations are considerably younger than our aging population. Examination of the benefits of increased ties to younger population countries should be more closely scrutinized. There needs to be reasoned analysis about how seniors, their investment portfolios, and economic stability can be helped or hurt based on honest recommendations to link young with old populations.

Because demographics are radically changing California would be wise to reconsider pension plans. Currently, only about 50% of jobs provide pension plans. Pension plans play an important part in transferring increased senior costs to individuals rather than the state or federal government. Pension plans will require honest calculations of factors such as life expectancy, assumed rates of return, and contribution amounts from employers and employees.

Even if past decisions were not realistic, existing pension plans should be honored as written when an employee signed on to work for any employer.

The majority of California seniors derive over 70% of their income from Social Security. So rather than eliminating pension plans we should encourage expansion of pension plans so businesses and employees can manage the challenges over employees' lifetimes.