Name: Policy Shifts, Planning Gaps
Uploaded: 2026-04-10T14:02:00Z
Duration: 11 min 7 s
Description: Changes to Social Security, Medicare and tax policy demand new financial strategies. While anxious about the updates, many have yet to alter their plans. We'll explore how to move from anxiety to actions to protect your financial security.

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Changes to Social Security, Medicare and tax policy demand new financial strategies. While anxious about the updates, many have yet to alter their plans. We'll explore how to move from anxiety to actions to protect your financial security.

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Policy Shifts, Planning Gaps

Our conversation with Glen is gonna focus on the gap between investor awareness and government policy issues as well as meaningful retirement planning. Thanks so much for being with us, Glen.

Thanks Will. And it's great to be here.

So I'd kind of like to start with this recent study, the most recent study in fact released by Jackson, it focused on the investor's perspective when it comes to policy risks, particularly in the context of planning for retirement. Can you tell us about some of the key findings from that study?

Sure. Before I do, I would like to note, this study is the fifth installment in the Jackson Security and Retirement series that we've conducted in collaboration with the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. To date, we've looked at longevity risk, inflation risk, healthcare risk, market risk, and today, obviously we're talking about policy risk. In the future we planned round the series out with a discussion on family risk. In conducting the research, we surveyed investors who had a minimum of $100,000 in household financial assets were between the ages of 45 and 79 and participated in household decision making. On the advisor side, we looked at advisors with a minimum of 30 million in assets under management, 75 clients of whom 40% are over the age of 50, and represented wirehouses, national, regional, and independent broker dealers as well as RIA firms, insurance and bank brokers. Now, in this study we focused on federal policy related to retirement, that's social security, Medicare, Medicaid, and federal tax policy. When we talk about policy risk, specifically what we're referring to is changes in government rules and regulations that can negatively affect a retirement plan. Essentially, it's the link between government action and household outcomes. Now, the key findings. They were really centered around three big themes. First, investors anticipate significant changes in policy in the coming years. In fact, 46 to 65% of the investors we studied expect negative changes to come. Second, Gen X reported significantly higher concern around potential changes than boomers did, even though the boomers are in fact more relying on these benefits and reported a higher level of importance for these programs. And third, despite this policy discussions are often not happening between advisors and their clients.

And did anything about all this surprise you based on what you were expecting going into it?

Yeah, one of the biggest surprises was how many investors report that they're delaying retirement since the beginning of last year. In fact, it was a little over a fifth of those we studied. That points to a huge planning opportunity. We think it's driven by a gap between the widespread of awareness that investors have around potential policy changes and the low frequency of planning discussions that seem to be occurring with advisors despite heightened concerns around social security, Medicare and federal taxes. Even if the investor is working with a financial professional, they report a lack of clarity about what to do with these issues.

And then you have this reality in the survey that nearly half of the investors think that government policy is gonna impact their retirement security. Policy uncertainty clearly is a big concern for them. Why then do you think there's this disconnect between those fears and then the actual shifts in retirement planning that we're seeing?

Yeah, that's an interesting question. I think fundamentally it's a result of the big difference we've found between financial professionals and investors and their view on the current state of the economy. In fact, 62% of financial professionals feel that the economy is in good shape. Contrast that with only 32% of investors who felt the same way. There's also a similar gap with regard to the general policy environment. So investors, they're far more likely to think that higher federal taxes are coming in order to fund these programs, and yet at the same time, more than half also think there will be state tax increases that will cover potential federal funding shortfalls. And despite this, policy discussions take a backseat. It may be that advisors don't see the necessity because they think the world is in a better place than investors by and large do. And on a related note, in our healthcare study we saw that investors and advisors tend not to talk about social security, for example, claiming strategies, and the specific level of Medicare benefits that they ought to enroll in. And we think that that may also be that level of complexity, something that's inhibiting conversations as well.

You mentioned Medicare, you talked about the generations that you looked at in this survey. Can you highlight for some of the sort of key differences between generations, for instance, I dunno, Gen X, baby boomers, and then specifically can you talk about the differences when it comes to social security and Medicare?

Sure. So as you know, the conventional wisdom is that retirees tend to be more sensitized to tax increases. And as we know at this point, most of the boomer cohort is retired. Yet in our study, when confronted with a hypothetical 5% increase in the federal tax rate, 76% of Gen X who are still working reported that they would have to make significant changes to their personal spending, where only 65% of boomers reported that level of impact. Meanwhile, only 36% of Gen X feel extremely or very secure in their current financial situation. And when you look at the opposite tact, how concerned the level they are, 46% of Gen X reports being very concerned versus only 37% of boomers. Overall, what we're seeing is this significant difference where boomers see the importance of social security and Medicare and Medicaid in their lives. They're physically benefiting from these programs as we speak, and yet they're reporting lower levels of concern around the programs and potential future changes and how they might impact them.

And when you look through the research and the findings, did you see a clear difference between those investors who maybe work with a financial professional and those who choose not to?

You know, we didn't. It's interesting. Investors show similar levels of awareness whether they're working with a financial professional or not. In fact, the majority of both baby boomers and Gen X report that they're raising these questions with advisors, in fact, Gen X, even more so than boomers at levels up to close to 80%. So the challenge isn't awareness, it's really around planning guidance, it's advisors working with their clients to revise plans to address implications. If they would do that, then there would probably be a difference between the advised and unadvised. But right now we're not seeing any difference.

Clearly the role of government policy is a challenging topic for any of us in lots of different contexts. But in the context of retirement, it's something you can't ignore by the sounds of it. How do you think that financial professionals should go about having those conversations around the risks that stem from policy to make sure their clients feel not overwhelmed, but really prepared for what it may mean for them?

So first, keep the discussions brief and fact-based. Second, focus on solutions not causes. The causes are where the politics tend to enter and you get into difficulties. In response to headlines, investors may ask how they'll be impacted. The advisor can provide simple scenario-based guidance. In other words, prepare your clients for a range of possibilities rather than guessing about a single potential outcome. Who knows what Washington's going to do next? For example, show how a plan might adapt to changes in Medicare benefits or premium levels, or the level of social security benefits that'll be available. Doing those things will help the client be better prepared for a range of outcomes.

And it's easy for citizens to kind of feel overwhelmed by all of the news that passes their eyes every day or through their ears. And I imagine for investors, many people feel paralyzed as well by all of the different policy headlines, the what ifs, the maybes. What proactive steps can people take right now, do you think, Glen, to move past some of that uncertainty and maybe make sure they're able to better protect and shield their long-term plans for retirement?

You know, the message from our policy risk study is clear. Working with a financial professional can really boost your confidence with open and informed discussions. And as a side note, this is a finding that's been consistent throughout the retirement risks that we've studied, that I noted earlier. When you work with a financial professional, you're typically getting measured experience based, fact oriented response to a given planning input. And that allows you to take a measured response yourself as opposed to reacting in the moment in a way that might be negatively impacting your plan or the outcome. When you're having those discussions with a financial professional, focus on the facts, look at the probabilities of different scenarios, and they can guide you in these things, and the planning implications for each of the potential outcomes. In doing that, it will help you develop long-term confidence in potentially successful outcomes regardless of how policy evolves.

Okay, we've gotta leave it here. But thank you so much for all of those insights and your thoughts sharing them with us. Really appreciate it.

You're quite welcome.