Planning for a secure retirement is an enormous challenge – the plan must cover all of a person’s remaining years and beyond, considering their legacy. Further complicating such planning are possible shifts in the public policy environment: changes to social insurance programs can undermine the foundations of a retirement plan; changes to the tax system can scramble a household’s finances; and a ballooning government debt can increase interest rates and slow the economy. The question is how the recent uptick in policy risk may affect the decisions and behavior of near-retirees and retirees.
This brief, which is the first of two drawn from a recent study, addresses that question by combining a comprehensive summary of the academic literature with a new survey of the changes in the views and actions of near-retiree and retiree investors since the start of 2025.1 The survey looks simultaneously across three policy areas: 1) Social Security; 2) Medicare; and 3) fiscal policy – primarily, the federal debt and taxes. The second brief will report on the results of a companion survey – one focused on financial advisors – to understand the advice these older investors might have received regarding the uptick in policy risk.
Read more at The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College
