By Nyce, Scheiber, Shoven, Slavov and Wise Discussion by Katie Carman 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

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!