Analysis Shows How Using Home Equity Can Help in Retirement

March 9, 2010 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – Americans' reluctance to use home equity to fund retirement could result in more not being able to maintain their standard of living in retirement.

The latest analysis of the National Retirement Risk Index (NRRI), released by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College and underwritten by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, examines how not taking full advantage of housing equity affects the share of U.S. households ‘at risk.’ The result is a 10-percentage-point rise in the Index, a finding that 61% of households would not be able to maintain their standard of living in retirement.

The NRRI uses very conservative assumptions in its baseline scenario, including that consumers access their home equity through a reverse mortgage and invest the proceeds in an inflation-indexed annuity to help generate retirement income. The CRR said it performed its analysis realizing that very few people actually do that.

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The analysis found the effect of not using home equity is greater than the effect the recession had on the Index, which caused a 7-percentage-point rise in the Index (see Index Finds More not Prepared for Retirement).

The CRR’s findings are here.

Brooks Joins DWS Investments

March 9, 2010 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - DWS Investments, the US retail unit of Deutsche Bank’s global Asset Management division, has announced the appointment of Scott Brooks as a Director responsible for Third Party Insurance National Accounts.

According to a press release, Brooks will be responsible for managing client relationships with insurance companies and sub-advised mutual fund firms. He will be based in New York reporting to Michael Woods, a Managing Director and US Head of Distribution for DWS Investments Distributors, Inc.      

Brooks joins DWS Investments from JPMorgan Asset Management where, as a Vice President, he helped the Funds Management and Global Real Asset divisions build their defined contribution, investment-only (DCIO) distribution platforms. Prior to JPMorgan, Brooks served as a Director and led the DCIO business for Managers Investment Group.

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He also spent more than 16 years at OppenheimerFunds where he founded and led the firm’s DCIO business team, according to the announcement.

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