Silver Divorces, Canada

While the overall Canadian divorce rate hovers around 38 percent, silver divorce is on the rise:

• 34 percent for those 50 to 54
• 47.8 percent for those 55 to 59
• 31.7 percent for those 60 to 64
• 9.2 percent for those 65 and over

Statistics Canada has determined that more than one-third of marriages will end in divorce before the couple's 30th anniversary and that 43 percent of women will see their income decrease substantially -- including their retirement funds.

Mutual Fund Companies Seeking Retirement Marketing Gurus

A growing number of mutual fund companies, including Putnam Investments, OppenheimerFunds Inc. and Lord Abbett & Co. LLC, are focusing more on hiring retirement specialists for marketing and sales roles as they see lucrative opportunities developing in the retirement space.

And the stakes are high.

Retirement Fund Withdrawals: Advice from the Dallas Morning News

Conventional wisdom says retirees can annually withdraw 4 percent to 5 percent from their investment portfolios without depleting their retirement funds. But, according to an article published in the Dallas Morning News, there are several factors that will impact how much you can withdraw:

• Do you plan on leaving money to your heirs? If so, you may need to withdraw less each year.
• How much of your income needs in retirement will be met by other sources, such as Social Security or a pension? Without this cushion, you may need to be more conservative with your withdrawals.

How heavily is your portfolio invested in stocks? Because stocks have a higher long-term rate of return than do bonds, the more stocks you have the more you're able to withdraw. But keep in mind that stocks also are more volatile.

Social Security SmartMoney

SmartMoney offers tips on how to get the most out of Social Security. Much of the following is quoted from the article.

For example, when should you take benefits?

To answer that question, learn how Social Security works.

First, how does the program calculate your benefits? By looking at your income history, adjusting your annual earnings for inflation, averaging together your 35 highest-paid years and replacing a portion of that average income on a monthly basis according to a progressive formula. (That is, it substitutes a higher percentage of earnings for recipients at lower levels of income.)

Next, the timing

You can start drawing Social Security payments as soon as you reach age 62, but your full retirement age is the age at which you can claim full benefits. This will be somewhere between 65 and 67, depending on the year you were born. If you take benefits before you reach full retirement age, your payments will be reduced. Conversely, you can delay taking Social Security after you reach full retirement age and the amount of your eventual benefits will increase until you reach age 70.

You can claim benefits based on either your own earnings history or your spouse's. Spousal benefits are equal to 50 percent of what your husband or wife gets if you take them at full retirement age, less if you take them early. And if your spouse dies, you are eligible to receive his or her full monthly amount as a survivor benefit.

Finally, you can continue to work while receiving Social Security, but if you do so before reaching full retirement age, your benefits will be reduced. In the years before you hit full retirement age, Social Security will withhold one dollar for every two you earn over $14,160; in the year you reach full retirement age, the program will hold back one dollar for every three you make over $37,680; beyond your full retirement age, you can work with no penalty.

Complicated? Definitely -- which is why you need to sit down with your spouse and Social Security's Retirement Estimator (www.ssa.gov/estimator) to see what's best for your household. You may well find it's worth waiting to take benefits, at least until you reach full retirement age.

Unfortunately, human beings tend to take money as soon as it's available, whatever the circumstances. Half of all men, in fact, claim Social Security by the age of 63. Many surely need the cash. Just as surely, others are shortchanging themselves and their widows. Make sure you work through your numbers thoroughly.

Beyond these basic considerations, consider three unusual but perfectly legal Social Security strategies that analysts at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College explored in an important study released last August.

First, if your husband or wife retires, you can claim spousal benefits, keep working and then switch to your own benefits later, when you retire. This approach lets you build up credits while you collect at least some payments. And it's very helpful if you and your spouse want to retire at different times.

Second, when you reach full retirement age, you can claim benefits but suspend payment until a later date. Your husband or wife can then take spousal benefits right away while the value of your own future payments rises. This technique is particularly useful if you and your spouse have very different earnings histories. If your wife, for example, will not qualify for substantial benefits on her own, she can still collect monthly checks while yours are suspended.

Finally, if you claim Social Security early, you can reclaim at a higher benefit level later -- as long as you're able to pay back all the benefits you've received so far. Suppose you started taking $1,000 a month at age 62 and have collected $50,000 so far but would be eligible for $1,300 a month if you retired today. If you give the government back its $50,000, it will treat you as though you never claimed in the first place -- and pay you the higher monthly benefit.

Savings Program for West Virginia State Workers

Nearly half the state workers of West Virginia, or about 300,000 people, have no retirement savings plan through their employer, a situation alarming enough to bring together liberals and conservatives on a plan to make West Virginia the first state to help those workers save for retirement.

A bill in the state Senate would enable the state treasurer's office to create a savings program for workers in small businesses that don't offer retirement plans.

Participation would be voluntary. West Virginia state workers could choose to save, and employers could choose to match employee savings. A percentage of each paycheck would automatically go to an investment fund run by a private firm, and the state would have no obligation to make up for losses.

The plan is similar to the Automatic IRA program proposed by President Barack Obama last month, an idea developed by the Retirement Security Project, a group also backing the West Virginia proposal.

Higher Education Jitters

According to a recent survey conducted by ING's U.S. Retirement Services, those employed in the higher education community are growing more nervous about their ability to retire comfortably -- yet few are changing their retirement strategy in this challenging environment.

The web-based survey polled retirement plan participants employed at colleges, universities and post-secondary schools around the country to learn more about their views and attitudes on planning and preparing for retirement.

The men and women who responded were varied in age, salary and job function.

The survey found that nearly two-thirds of those responding (62%) were less confident today about living comfortably in retirement than before the financial market decline in 2008.  However, roughly the same amount (63%) said they did not expect to delay their retirement in light of the market events.

Salt Lake City Protests

Several hundred public employees and retirees rallied Saturday at the Utah state capitol. They spoke out against legislative efforts to restructure the state's retirement system.

They argue that cutting pension benefits for future workers and removing a 1.5 percent 401(k) match for state and school workers would stifle recruitment and retention efforts.

But the system, which covers more than 180,000 current and former state and local government workers, has taken a beating during the recession and stock market downturn. The state pension fund's value is down by an estimated 20 percent to 30 percent.

Lawmakers say they're worried that if no cutbacks are made, state and local governments will someday have to provide overwhelmingly large sums of money each year just to pay retirement benefits.

A Plunging Need Requirement

In Royal Bank of Canada polling, Canadians had said they would need nearly $450,000 on average in 2007 for a comfortable retirement. By 2009, that number had plunged 40 percent to nearly $270, 000.

The Fastest Growing Age Group in America

The over-85 crowd is the fastest-growing segment of the population, according to the National Institute of Aging. That group is expected to grow by 233% by 2040, compared with 33% for the rest of the population.

Labor and Treasury Information Request

The Department of Labor and the Department of the Treasury are currently reviewing the rules under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the plan qualification rules under the Internal Revenue Code (Code) to determine whether, and, if so, how, the Agencies could or should enhance, by regulation or otherwise, the retirement security of participants in employer-sponsored retirement plans and in individual retirement arrangements (IRAs) by facilitating access to, and use of, lifetime income or other arrangements designed to provide a lifetime stream of income after retirement.

The purpose of this request for information is to solicit views, suggestions and comments from plan participants, employers and other plan sponsors, plan service providers, and members of the financial community, as well as the general public, on this important issue.