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2019 Annual & Corporate
Responsibility Report

Staying Ahead of Disruption

Post Retirement Financial Planning

grandmother hugging

Alliance for Lifetime Income: Upgraded Retirement Planning

Despite the U.S. being one of the wealthiest countries, it is still facing a looming retirement income crisis. Simply put, it means those retiring from the workforce may not have the money necessary to maintain the standard of living they have become used to during their working years. There is a growing need to address this income gap and outdated formula for retirement planning. Annuities, which provide protected lifetime income, can help be part of the solution, but they remain underused.

The Alliance for Lifetime Income, a nonprofit marketing coalition, was created to shift retirement perceptions from accumulation to generating income. MassMutual became a partner of the Alliance in 2018, along with 23 other member companies, in order to help educate consumers on how annuities can provide them with a protected lifetime income. In 2020, MassMutual will continue to leverage the partnership with the Alliance to help ease consumers’ concerns associated with the retirement crisis and provide financial professionals with the tools they need to discuss the benefits of annuities with their clients.

AgeUp: Longevity Protection and Improved Financial Health for Retirees

Given the current state of retirement savings, it is no surprise that many retirees end up depending on Social Security benefits to support themselves. Choosing when to retire and file for Social Security retirement benefits, however, shouldn’t be a forced decision. To better understand the learnings from those who have filed for Social Security retirement benefits, we commissioned the MassMutual Social Security Pulse Check in 2019. Conducted in collaboration with AgeFriendly.com, the survey uncovered several findings including:

  • Three out of 10 (30%) filed at age 62 or younger.

  • Nearly four out of 10 (38%) wished they had filed later.

  • More than half (53%) filed out of financial necessity, such as not saving enough, and another one-third (30%) filed as the result of unforeseen issues, such as health issues or employment changes.

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The study underscored that most people still were not saving enough. It also became clear that many end up needing to access funds as soon as they qualify, regardless of the longer-term impact of that decision.

In 2019, we developed AgeUp through MassMutual’s in-house startup Haven Life to tackle one aspect of financial security in retirement—longevity risk, or the chance of outliving one’s resources. AgeUp reimagines the buying experience for retirement products and, specifically, how income annuitization can help address the financial concerns of future retirees and their families. With Haven Life, a wholly owned subsidiary of MassMutual, powering its technology, AgeUp was launched as a first-of-its-kind annuity product for an often overlooked customer problem: Who will take care of your parents if they live into their 90s or 100s, a lifespan that is increasingly common, but for which few plan? To ensure AgeUp was built to address this retirement gap, we also conducted extensive internal research with thousands of potential customers, primarily millennials and Gen Xers.

Here are some of the key findings:

  • 71% believe at least one parent or in-law will live longer than average.

  • 57% have a relative who lived to age 95 or beyond.

  • 64% expect to financially support their parents or in-laws in their old age.

  • 35% think their parents will run out of money between the age of 90 and 100.