Volcker Says Social Security The Bedrock For Securing Savings
“Social Security is the bedrock of any retirement policy in this country,” said Volcker, chairman of the presidents Economic Recovery Advisory Board, at a retirement forum in New York yesterday. “Theres plenty of room and plenty of need for retirement programs on top of that.”
Having enough income for retirement has become a focus of the administration amid concerns that Americans will outlive their savings. The presidents fiscal 2011 budget proposed changing government rules to allow annuities within 401(k) plans and requiring most businesses that dont offer retirement accounts to automatically enroll employees in direct-deposit Individual Retirement Accounts.
“None of them stand out as the great savior,” Volcker said of the government proposals. Reforming Social Security is “doable,” he said, in part by “jacking up the retirement age” and changing the benefit calculation so that it wont rise as fast for higher-income Americans as it does under existing law.
About 63 percent of low-income workers may retire without any savings to supplement Social Security, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office, and 78 million Americans dont have retirement plans through their employers, according to the government.
Estate Tax
Volcker spoke at an event organized by Axa Equitable Life Insurance Co., a unit of Axa SA, Europes second-biggest insurer. About 350 financial professionals and clients of the insurer attended, according to Michael Arcaro, a spokesman for Axa Equitable.
The 82-year-old Volcker also said allowing the federal estate tax to expire Jan. 1 was “ridiculous” and “illustrative of the dysfunction in government.” If Congress doesnt act, the estate tax will be reinstated in 2011 at a 55 percent rate on estates valued at more than $1 million.
Volcker was chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987.
— Editors: Rick Levinson, Sharon L. Lynch.