Method and system for portable retirement investment

Abstract

A process and a system for providing a user with a plurality of periodic retirement income payments is disclosed. The process comprises the steps of receiving an input including two of a retirement date, a minimum retirement income amount and a defined premium payment amount for payment over a plurality of preset payment intervals. The process also includes the steps of calculating the other one of the retirement date, the minimum retirement income amount and the defined premium payment amount for an accumulation period defined by the retirement date and a current age of the user; receiving a premium payment amount from the user during the accumulation period; investing the received premium payment amount in an account in a manner consistent with one or more predefined objectives during the accumulation period to realize a retirement income amount. The process further includes the step of transmitting the retirement income amount to at least one of the user and a designated receiver at a designated time after the end of the accumulation period. The retirement income amount includes a predetermined guaranteed minimum retirement income if the received premium payments are received according to a preset premium payment schedule.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 876,053, filed Jun. 8, 2001, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Up until about 1870, more than half of the United States' adult workers were farmers. These adult workers were typically engaged in their occupations until their death or until their health prevented them from continuing their occupations. It was uncommon to have a prolonged retirement period before a worker's death.[0003]After 1870, however, industry developed rapidly and the economy tended increasingly to be characterized by industrialization and urbanization. The result was that workers increasingly were employed in more industry-related jobs and became more dependent upon a continuing flow of monetary income to provide for themselves and their families. Additionally, the average life expectancies of workers began to incre...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

The Social Security program is not keeping pace with such changes.

Therefore, it is becoming increasingly uncertain whether the Social Security program will continue to remain viable until the time that today's workers are ready to retire.

Moreover, many retirees have found that the amount of retirement benefits to which they are entitled under the Social Security program is insufficient to enable them to maintain a desired level of comfort in their retirement.

However, many such retirement benefits or pensions are not portable.

In other words, if an employee leaves the employ of an employer, that employee may lose all entitlement to such retirement benefit or pension if the employee terminates his / her employment prior to the expiration of the vesting period.

However, in today's mobile society, employees do not tend to remain employed by one employer for their entire careers.

Many employees therefore lose some or all of their projected retirement benefits which may have accrued during their employ by their employers when they leave the employ of such employers.

Additionally, many employers are ceasing to offer defined benefit plans altogether because of the costs.

Because of the decrease in the number of employers that offer defined retirement benefit pension plans, the decrease in the number of workers entitled to employer-funded retirement benefits and also because of the increased mobility of the workforce resulting in the loss of such employer-funded benefits, many workers have started to fund their own retirement savings plans.

However, one disadvantage of the increased reliance upon employee-self-funded retirement savings is that these plans do not provide a level of retirement income that is guaranteed for the employee.

In addition, many employees do not have any idea of an amount required to be saved in order to achieve a desired level of income to ensure a comfortable lifestyle upon their retirement.

Thus, they do not contribute a sufficient amount of their salaries towards such retirement savings to provide an adequate income level to maintain the standard of living they desire upon retirement.

Retirement income needs may increase in the event such retirees suffer from health-related problems.

In fact, many employees today express concern that they will not have adequate funds saved to provide for themselves during their retirement in the event they suffer health-related problems after they retire.

Images