Too late
Calgary Herald
January 3, 2010
Re: "Don't panic on pensions," Editorial, Dec. 27.
I fully concur with your position on this issue. You and other media have, however, missed one of the key points in Jack Mintz's paper: "Retirement income adequacy depends not only on saving, but also on the investment performance of retirement funds." It is obvious that the amount of savings necessary to generate adequate levels of retirement income is reduced if there is an after-tax return of three to five per cent or more, rather than one or two per cent.
It is ironic that Mintz is the author of the current paper on retirement income adequacy, considering his earlier role in creating the false belief that income trusts caused tax leakage through the RRSP structure.
That belief was presented by the government as a key justification in getting rid of income trusts, a tool that millions of Canadians used to improve retirement income returns with no change in investment risk. In addition, many will recall that the tax change announcement in 2006 also caused a sudden drop in the net worth of retirement accounts that rivals the effect of the current recession.
If there is merit in improving the adequacy of retirement income, it is important to remember the investment return on retirement funds as well as the saving side of the equation. For the many Canadians nearing retirement or already retired, it is too late for the latter.
Clinton T. Broughton, Calgary
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Jack Mintz is the Benedict Arnold of retirement savings
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5 comments:
Imagine ... this guy is suppose to be a professor. Imagine the grade you'd get in his class if submitted a paper with ZERO references and ZERO research.
Worse even still, is that Jack Mintz is a complete academic sham.
Below is what he wrote to me on November 28, 2006, in which he admits to an error in PRIVATE correspondence, but DOES NOTHING to make this error known to the PUBLIC:
"I do want to point out that there is a serious flaw in some analyses especially on the taxation of pension and RRSP accounts. Finance was not right to treat the impact as zero."
CPP , OAS & Income supplements just won`t cut it if you ever plan to retire in any comfort here in Canada--these things combined barely get a person the poverty line.
The majority of Canadians do not have any savings.
Without savings , there is no possibility of producing an income stream.
No savings + no income stream = Meow Mix at every meal.
Now for those of us that planned for retirement , worked our asses off to save a nestegg to invest & produce the fabled income stream , income trusts were just the ticket.
We could live off of the returns & stay off of the gov`t dole.
As well , this was taxable income which went to fatten the gov`t coffers to pay for services for everyone.
Killing income trusts forced these same investors into more risk-type investments with much lower returns & therefore much lower tax payments to the gov`t--a lose / lose situation---the depletion of savings which resulted decreased the pool of cash to invest just forcing the spiral ever wider.
Both Mintz & Flaherty are satisfied with the status quo.
I can`t wait for the day of reckoning when the gov`t has to pay off the massive deficit with Flaherty`s Ontario-honed slash & burn cuts----at that point Canadians will be asked to pay for services out of pocket.
Yeah , that`s right , the same pockets laid bare by Mintz & Flaherty.
All of a sudden we have gone from Meow Mix to No Name.
It sure sucks to be us.
Dr Mike Popovich
An unethical, cowardly, weasel, bottom feeder will be Prof. Mintz's legacy.
hornby-isl
Just like always, it makes no sense what this idiot (jack mintz) is saying! (par for the course) - that's golf talk, 'cause he probably doesn't know that either.
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