Industry News

Recently, the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College (CRR) released its issue brief, What Are the Implications of Rising Debt for Older Americans? CRR analyzed older Americans with debt in retirement to help determine the impact on those that are at high risk of financial distress due to the type and size of their debt. 

The brief indicates that the number of older Americans with debt has been increasing since the 1990s. However, the analysis found that holding debt in retirement may not always be a negative factor. Importantly, identifying the types of household debt situations is significant in understanding the implications of the increase in debt holding among older Americans.

Other key findings include:

• The majority of older borrowers are at high-risk, but not all high-risk borrowers are identical; and
• Those at high-risk are categorized as: 1) financially constrained; 2) credit card borrowers; 3) excessive housing burdened; and 4) wealthy spenders.

The brief concludes, “The key takeaway is the recognition that no one-size-fits-all solution exists, so understanding the diverse characteristics of high-risk borrowers is essential to developing effective policies to help older households struggling with debt.”

​The brief is available here.