Tag: Think Advisor

Social Security COLA for 2022 Estimated Near 6%

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2021/09/14/social-security-cola-estimate-for-2022-dropped-to-6-to-6-1/

Excerpt:

The annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for Social Security benefits in 2022 — usually announced in October — could be 6% to 6.1%, the highest since 1983, based on Tuesday’s Consumer Price Index announcement, according to Social Security and Medicare policy analyst Mary Johnson of The Senior Citizens League, who estimated the 2022 COLA would be 6.2% a month ago.

The latest estimate, which is based on inflation of 0.3% in August, is especially significant as next year’s COLA will be calculated on the average of third-quarter, or July, August and September, CPI data.

…..

The consumer price index for all urban consumers in August rose 5.3% over the past 12 months, and 0.3% from the previous month, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. (The CPI includes food and energy.)

Author(s): Ginger Szala

Publication Date: 14 Sept 2021

Publication Site: Think Advisor

5 States Where COVID-19 Hospitalizations Are Surging

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2021/07/29/5-states-where-covid-19-hospitalizations-are-surging/

Graphic:

Excerpt:

Some U.S. states look as if they might be heading into a severe new wave of COVID-19.

Federal government charts illustrating trends in new case counts and hospitalization rates in those states are starting to head straight up.

Hospitalization rates may be a better indicator of outbreak severity than new case counts, because ups and downs in the number of people diagnosed with COVID-19 might reflect changes in how easy and cheap it is for people to get tested, rather than infection rates.

Hospitals, in contrast, are likely to admit people with COVID-19 only when those people are seriously ill.

Author(s): Allison Bell

Publication Date: 29 July 2021

Publication Site: Think Advisor

5 U.S. States Where COVID-19 Slashed Birth Rates

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2021/07/06/5-u-s-states-where-covid-19-slashed-birth-rates/

Graphic:

Excerpt:

The pandemic has killed about 0.9% of Americans over age 65, and it has also reduced the number of babies born in 2020 by 4%, to 3.6 million, according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics.

That’s the biggest drop since 1973, when fear of overpopulation led many U.S. mothers to give up on the idea of having more than two children.

Author(s): Allison Bell

Publication Date: 6 July 2021

Publication Site: Think Advisor

Biden Budget Boosts Health Subsidies, Broadens Net Investment Income Tax

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2021/06/01/biden-budget-boosts-health-subsidies-broadens-net-investment-income-tax/

Excerpt:

The current, emergency health insurance premium tax credit subsidy levels would become permanent.

Either the net investment income tax or self-employment tax would apply to all individual income over $400,000.

The definition of net investment would expand.

Author(s): Allison Bell

Publication Date: 1 June 2021

Publication Site: Think Advisor

Financial Institutions Form Global Alliance to Fight Climate Change

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2021/04/21/financial-institutions-form-global-alliance-to-fight-climate-change/

Excerpt:

On the eve of President Joe Biden’s virtual climate change summit with approximately 40 other world leaders and the fifty-first anniversary of Earth Day, a new alliance of 160 financial institutions was formed to achieve net zero by 2050 or sooner.

The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) consists of three separate groups representing different sectors of the financial universe — the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), comprising 43 banks from 23 countries including Bank of America, Citi and Morgan Stanley in the U.S.; the Net Zero Asset Managers Alliance of 87 firms, including BlackRock, Vanguard, Allianz Global Advisors, Invesco and State Street Global Advisors and Trillium Asset Management, which joined Wednesday; and the 37-member UN-Convened Net Zero Owners Alliance, which includes the David Rockefeller Fund and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS).

Author(s): Bernice Napach

Publication Date: 21 April 2021

Publication Site: Think Advisor

Tax Rules Shape U.S. Life COVID-19 Impact: Fitch Analysts

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2021/04/21/tax-rules-shape-u-s-life-covid-19-impact-fitch-analysts/

Excerpt:

At big life reinsurers, U.S. claims have averaged about $5 million to about $25 million per 10,000 COVID-19  deaths reported for the entire  U.S. population, according to the analysts.

RGA could be facing $15 million to $25 million in claims per 10,000 U.S. population  COVID-19 deaths, the analysts estimate.

Even at RGA, however, 2020 COVID-19 claims amounted to only about 6% of net premiums earned, and all of the life reinsurers were profitable in 2020, the analysts say.

Author(s): Allison Bell

Publication Date: 21 April 2021

Publication Site: Think Advisor

Consumers Want Liquidity: Survey

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2021/03/23/consumers-want-liquidity-survey/

Excerpt:

The Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) looks at what consumers want, and need, in a new batch of results from a survey of 2,034 U.S. adults, ages 18 and older, that was conducted in November 2020, as the third U.S. wave of the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning.

….

About 68% of the MDRT survey participants had investments of some kind, according to the public results summary and the survey executive summary.

The pandemic hit the finances of many of the survey participants hard: 19% said their income rose in 2020, but 35% said their income fell.

About 82% of all of the participants said they were saving money, and many of them reported aiming more for liquidity than for a secure retirement.

Author(s): Allison Bell

Publication Date: 23 March 2021

Publication Site: Think Advisor

5 States Where Pandemic Stress Could Hurt CEOs’ Health

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2021/03/23/5-states-where-pandemic-stress-could-hurt-ceos-health/

Excerpt:

The Great Recession had the mortality effect of increasing a typical CEO’s age by about 1.5 years.

Anti-takeover laws had the mortality effect of decreasing a typical affected CEO’s age by about 2 years.

The Great Recession made an affected CEO look an average of 1.2 years older, based on assessments by computers equipped with age-estimation software.

Author(s): Allison Bell

Publication Date: 23 March 2021

Publication Site: Think Advisor

MassMutual Sees Crisis Hitting Younger Adults Harder

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2021/03/29/massmutual-sees-crisis-hitting-younger-adults-harder/

Excerpt:

About 25% of the millennials and zoomers said they’re now having trouble with day-to-day expenses, compared with 19% of the GenXers and 9% of the boomers.

Twenty percent of the survey participants in the younger two age groups said they’ve had to adjust their lifestyles to keep costs down, compared with just 14% of the GenXers and 7% of the boomers.

Author(s): Allison Bell

Publication Date: 29 March 2021

Publication Site: Think Advisor

Bill Reintroduced to Shore Up Social Security, Medicare

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2021/04/15/bill-reintroduced-to-shore-up-social-security-medicare/

Excerpt:

A bipartisan group of lawmakers reintroduced Thursday legislation to shore up the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds.

The Time to Rescue United States Trusts, or TRUST Act, would establish bipartisan, bicameral commissions to address the long-term solvency of major trust funds.

….

The Congressional Budget Office projects the Highway Trust Fund will be insolvent by 2022, the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund in 2026, the Social Security retirement fund in 2032, and Social Security Disability Insurance in 2035.

Author(s): Melanie Waddell

Publication Date: 15 April 2021

Publication Site: Think Advisor

Actuaries Find Race and Ethnicity Disclosure Gap

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2021/04/06/actuaries-find-race-and-ethnicity-disclosure-gap/

Excerpt:

About 12% of U.S. residents are Black, and 15% are Hispanic or Latino.

In the insurance industry, 12% of employees are Black and 12% are Hispanic or Latino.

Just 4.4% of new SOA members are Black, and 3.7% of new members are Hispanic or Latino.

Author(s): Allison Bell

Publication Date: 6 April 2021

Publication Site: Think Advisor

5 Worst States for New COVID-19 Cases

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2021/03/30/5-worst-states-for-new-covid-19-cases/

Excerpt:

The fourth U.S. wave of COVID-19 cases has started.

It’s not yet clear whether the wave will be a big one, or a little swell tamped down by masks, vaccines and successful social distancing efforts. But the total number of new cases in the United States increased to 422,980 in the seven-day period ending March 27, up 11% from the total for the week ending March 20.

The number of cases per 100,000 residents increased to 127. That was up from 115 per 100,000 U.S. residents a week earlier, and up from a recent low of 113 per 100,000 U.S. residents two weeks earlier.

Author(s): Allison Bell

Publication Date: 30 March 2021

Publication Site: Think Advisor