Larry Fink, CEO of the investment group BlackRock, which controls over $10 trillion in investments (including a lot of retirement funds), thinks the federal government should raise the retirement age.
No one should have to work longer than they want to. But I do think it's a bit crazy that our anchor idea for the right retirement age, 65 years old, originates from the time of the Ottoman Empire.
Baby Boomers started retiring in 2011, and by 2029 all of them will be age 65 or older. In 2030, Generation X starts retiring. By 2031, 75 million people in the U.S. will be over the age of 65 (that's roughly a quarter of the current population).
And you know what that means?
All those people are going to want to stop working and withdraw their money from their BlackRock 401(k)s instead of paying into them.
What's Fink's solution?
He thinks the government needs to step in and fix the retirement crisis that BlackRock helped create.
What do I mean? Well, did you know Biden signed a law in 2022 that all companies with more than ten employees will be required to automatically enroll all their employees in 401(k) plans? BlackRock's site calls it "important progress."
I wonder how much money BlackRock spent lobbying for that one?
But Fink isn't content with that congressional victory.
He also wants those companies to have to provide matching funds, there to be no exceptions for gig economy companies using freelance labor (the new law offers gig employers the ability to auto-enroll but does not mandate it), and of course he's worried about what things like new pharmaceuticals might mean for life expectancy.
Increasing lifespans create further difficulties when trying to improve the retirement system, Fink said. This issue is of increasing relevance as blockbuster weight loss drugs have already begun drastically reshaping the health-care landscape, he said.
As a result, Fink said it is worth taking a look at when Americans are expected to start accessing Social Security benefits, typically a sensitive topic that no politician wants to touch. He noted potential solutions including either raising the age for benefits or finding ways to encourage working later.
I guess BlackRock would like us all to work ourselves into the grave?
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