Alicia Munnell: Married Couples Are in the Retirement Danger Zone

Our guest on the podcast today is Alicia Munnell, the director of The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. Alicia is a towering figure in the retirement research space. She and the team at the Center for Retirement Research produce articles and white papers on a wide variety of retirement-related topics, including Social Security, tax policy, retirement preparedness, and healthcare. Prior to joining Boston College in 1997, Alicia was a member of the president’s council of economic advisors and assistant secretary of the Treasury for economic policy. Previously, she spent 20 years at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, where she became senior vice president and director of research in 1984. Alicia has written scores of articles and authored and edited many books over the years; most recently, she co-authored Falling Short: The Coming Retirement Crisis and What to Do About It.

Background

Alicia Munnell bio
Alicia Munnell research archive
Center for Retirement Research at Boston College
Books by Alicia Munnell

Retirement Preparedness

“Is There Really a Retirement-Savings Crisis?” by Anne Tergesen, The Wall Street Journal, April 23, 2017.

“The Wealth of Households: An Analysis of the 2016 Survey of Consumer Finance,” Center for Economic and Policy Research, November 2017.

“Women, Marriage, and the National Retirement Risk Index,” by Alicia H. Munnell, Wenliang Hou and Geoffrey T. Sanzenbacher, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, June 2019.

“Exploring the Retirement Consumption Puzzle,” by David Blanchett, Journal of Financial Planning, May 2014.

“David Blanchett: If You’re Retiring Now, You’re in a Pretty Rough Spot,” The Long View, Sept. 18, 2019.

“The Extraordinary Happiness of Retirees,” by Steve Vernon, Global Coalition on Aging, May 16, 2016.

Defined-Contribution Plans

“The Federal Government Should Fix the Pension Coverage Gap,” by Alicia H. Munnell, Marketwatch, June 6, 2018.

“An Analysis of Retirement Models to Improve Portability and Coverage,” by Alicia H. Munnell, Anek Belbase, and Geoffrey T. Sanzenbacher, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, March 2018.

“Are Americans Really Able to Manage Their 401(k) Plans?” by Alicia Munnell, NextAvenue, May 17, 2012.

“401(k) Plan Fees: What Is Reasonable?” by Liam Pleven, The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 20, 2015.

“A Safe Harbor for Annuities Could Help Retirement Savers,” by Aron Szapiro, Morningstar blog, Oct. 18, 2018.

“State-Based Retirement Plans for the Private Sector,” Pension Rights Center.

Social Security

"Social Security’s Financial Outlook: The 2019 Update in Perspective," by Alicia H. Munnell, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, May 2019.

Status of the Social Security and Medicare Programs: A Summary of the 2019 Annual Reports, Social Security and