Social Security and Defined Benefit
Pension Payout Choices: Evidence
from a Survey of Retirees
By Nyce, Scheiber, Shoven, Slavov
and Wise
Discussion by Katie Carman
Preliminary Results
• Nyce et al presents the results from a recent
survey of retirees with retiree health
insurance
• Investigates reasons behind timing of social
security claiming and lump sum vs annuity
payouts for DB pensions
• Early glimpse at data
• Mostly bivariate analysis
A few small suggestions
• It would be helpful to test whether differences
are significant
• Selected sample, perhaps compare to HRS
• Might be helpful to code up responses for
“other”– especially for how people paid for
living expenses between retirement and
claiming where 56% chose other
• For DB pensions: Did those who picked lump
sum have particularly small DB pensions?
Months elapsed between stopping
work and claiming benefits
• Might be helpful to look at age of claiming
here– especially age 62
• And age of retirement
Table 10: Time Elapsed Between Retirement and Claiming (Primary Earners/Singles, Claimed at 62+, Worker Benefit,
Work to 50+)
Claim before NRA
Claim at NRA
Claim after NRA
Total
How many months elapsed
between the time you last
worked and the time you started
receiving Social Security?
No.
%
No.
%
No.
%
No.
%
Two months or less
210
26
91
40.1
52
53.1
353
31.2
3-11 months
114
14.1
41
18.1
16
16.3
171
15.1
12-23 months
80
9.9
22
9.7
7
7.1
109
9.6
24 months or more
397
49.2
71
31.3
21
21.4
489
43.2
Missing
6
0.7
2
0.9
2
2
10
0.9
Total
807
100
227
100
98
100
1,132
100
Familiarity with benefits of delay and
the benefit claiming
• They find that people who delayed are more
likely to be familiar with benefits of delay
• May have learned about benefits because
they delayed– not delayed because they knew
of benefits
Do people now believe that they
should have delayed claiming
• They find that people who claimed early were
more likely to say “if they were contemplating
retirement today, they would delay claiming”
• Would be helpful to look at this by age, or
focus only on those born after 1943
• The longer one lives, the greater the benefit
actually accrued from delay
• The value of hindsight
Strength and Limitations
• Insight into why people retired and claimed
when then did
• BUT
• It’s all measured after the retirement and
claiming decisions
• Focus on outcomes
Possible future directions
• Does satisfaction with timing of claiming
relate to
– The reason given for timing of claiming
– Health
More ideas
• They present results from only 1 of 4 surveys
• Do early claimers report
– More health problems
– Lower life satisfaction
– Lower satisfaction with their financial situation
Thank you!