The Academy of Financial Services 35th Annual Meeting

Retirement, Satisfaction with retirement income, Life Insurance, Cash value life insurance, Term life insurance

Using data from the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances, a cross-sectional study of approximately 6,500 households in the United States, this study examines the association between subjective expectations regarding retirement income and the ownership of life insurance policies. Estimation of ordered-probit models reveals that owning a life insurance policy is related positively to higher satisfaction with retirement income. Similarly, having a term-life insurance policy and having a cash-value-life insurance policy are each associated positively with higher satisfaction with retirement income. This study also finds a positive relationship between risk tolerance and expected satisfaction with retirement income. In addition, having a higher income, higher net worth, and being male are all associated with higher probabilities of being satisfied with retirement income.