We have the chance right now to make a real difference to the quality of life our newest employees will enjoy when they retire.

The Retirement Commissioners review of retirement income policy happens only once every three years and is currently underway.

We now have the opportunity to ask what has changed since 2010 and how can we do better.

For a start, we no longer believe that NZ Superannuation alone is enough for us to retire on. NZ Super currently provides a maximum of $349 per week for an individual and $537 per week for a couple.

The Financial Services Council (FSC) recently released the results of a Horizon Research survey showing only 9 per cent of New Zealanders believe that NZ Super alone will be sufficient for them to live on when they reach the age of entitlement.

In an earlier Horizon Research survey most New Zealanders defined comfortable as a weekly living amount that is about twice that of the NZ Super entitlement, or about $300 more per week for an individual and $500 more per week for a couple.

Many of the 2 million people who have joined KiwiSaver may mistakenly believe that at a 2 per cent contribution by employee and employer (rising to 3 per cent from 1 April) will cover the shortfall between NZ Super and a comfortable retirement. But we know that this is simply not the case.

Our calculations show that people need to save 10 per cent of their income from the time they start working, at 25 years for example, to achieve a comfortable retirement. That percentage increases rapidly as people delay starting to save for their retirement.

If we start saving after 50, we need to save half our income to fund such a comfortable retirement. Only about one in every 10 KiwiSaver members are currently saving at a rate sufficient to fund a comfortable retirement.

Even if we all save at the rate of 10 per cent of income, we will continue to fall behind the rate of saving in Australia, and thats before Australians increase their rate of compulsory retirement saving from 9 per cent to 12 per cent as they have agreed to do.

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Retirement Income Policy Review - why it matters

HARRISON, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Transamerica Retirement Solutions announced today that it will host a webinar for financial advisors and third party administrators focused on the concept and benefits of fund revenue equalization for retirement plans. The guest speaker will be Fred Reish, an Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) attorney and respected expert in the retirement plan industry. The webinar will be held on April 16 at noon Eastern Time.

Mr. Reish will provide insight on fee fairness best practices, the benefits of fund revenue equalization, and options plan sponsors have regarding the allocation of expenses among participant accounts. Mr. Reish will also discuss how changes to fee disclosure have impacted retirement plans. He will focus specifically on the implications of fund revenue sharing and plan sponsor liability.

"Fred Reish is very knowledgeable on the topic of fund revenue equalization and this should prove to be very insightful for attendees," said Stig Nybo, president of pension sales and distribution at Transamerica Retirement Solutions. "This webinar is a perfect example of what Transamerica seeks to offer with each Retirement Industry Speakers Bureau. We focus on truly relevant topics that provide timely and valuable information to financial advisors and third party administrators."

Mr. Reish is a partner with the Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Practice Group of DrinkerBiddle, Chair of the Financial Services ERISA Team, and a member of the Retirement Income Team. He is also a consultant member of the Institutional Retirement Income Council, which focuses on promoting the need for retirement income adequacy for defined contribution plan participants.

Financial advisors and third party administrators can register for the webinar by calling Transamerica at (888) 401-5826 and selecting option one, Monday Friday, 9 a.m. 7 p.m. Eastern Time.

About Transamerica Retirement Solutions

Transamerica Retirement Solutions (Transamerica) is a leading provider of customized retirement plan solutions for small to large organizations.

Transamerica partners with financial advisors, third party administrators, and consultants to cover the entire spectrum of defined benefit and defined contribution plans, including: 401(k) and 403(b) (Traditional and Roth); 457; profit sharing; money purchase; cash balance; Taft-Hartley; multiple employer plans; nonqualified deferred compensation; and rollover and Roth IRA.

Transamerica helps more than three million retirement plan participants save and invest wisely to secure their retirement dreams. For more information about Transamerica Retirement Solutions Corporation, please visit trsretire.com.

Excerpt from:
Transamerica Retirement Solutions to Host “Demystifying Fund Revenue Equalization” Webinar on April 16

I've gotten lots of valuable help from your column over the years, but have always wondered about your personal retirement strategy. Have you been faithful to your own advice? -- Jim K., Madison, Wis.

I haven't said much about my own finances in the more than 1,000 Ask the Expert columns I've written over the past 13 years. Everyone's situation is different, so I wouldn't want people to assume they should follow a particular strategy or invest in a certain way just because "The Expert" has done so.

But since I'll be leaving MONEY at the end of this month, I thought it would be appropriate to share the overall approach I've taken to retirement planning during my 26 years at MONEY in the hope that readers might apply it not in every particular, but in a general way to their own planning.

I'm not going to get into the nitty-gritty details. My wife would have my head if I started divulging account balances and such. Rather, I'll break down my retirement-planning efforts into two broad categories, specifically: What I've Done Reasonably Well and What I Could Have Done Better.

What I've done reasonably well

The single most effective thing I've done is save on a regular basis.

Whether my zeal for saving reflects an innate impulse, a reaction to my family's precarious financial situation as I was growing up, a rational decision to stash away money for the future or a combination of these, I can't say. But I can say that for whatever reason I've always tried to live below my means and contribute the max (or as close as I could get to it) to tax-advantaged retirement plans.

For example, as a freelance writer prior to joining MONEY, I opened and funded a Keogh account and then a SEP-IRA, both of which are retirement savings plans for the self-employed.

Once I became a MONEY staffer, I made it a point to take advantage of virtually every opportunity my employer offered to save, including the company 401(k) plan, which I funded to the max pretty much every year.

I also applied the 401(k) system of automatic payroll deductions to saving outside of tax-advantaged plans. In the late '90s, I set up an automatic investing plan, directing a mutual fund company to transfer $300 a month (later increased to $500) from my checking account to a stock fund. I felt a pinch at first, but after a few months I adjusted quickly to having a little less spendable income.

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Our expert reveals his personal retirement strategy

TORONTO (Reuters) - Retirement planning once meant plugging a client's 65th birthday into a spreadsheet and going from there. But with more Canadians than ever saying they plan to retire gradually, financial advisers are faced with a growing set of unknowns as they help clients plan for their golden years.

"It's becoming totally different. People are no longer retiring as much as they are redirecting," said Jill Chambers, a certified financial planner at Integrated Wealth Management in Calgary.

"They are going from a predictable full-time salaried position to something totally different. It isn't just a line in the sand: 'Today I'm a worker and tomorrow I'm a retiree.'"

A majority of Canadians say they plan to work after retirement or transition to retirement with a gradual easing of workload. Experts expect the trend to continue as people live longer and healthier lives, making work possible, and carry more debt into retirement, making work necessary.

A survey released in January by Desjardins Insurance found 75 percent of Canadians planned to transition into retirement over time, rather than stopping work suddenly.

And while financial need seems an obvious reason to work longer, the survey showed just as many of those who felt financially secure wanted a gradual retirement as those who felt less secure.

"The traditional notion of retirement of packing up your office at the end of your last day and completely changing your life is ending," Angela Iermieri, financial planner with Desjardins Group, said of the survey.

A similar survey by BMO Financial Group, also released in January, found 81 percent of Canadians plan on working in some capacity during their retirement. Some 39 percent plan to start their own business after age 65 - with 75 percent motivated by the need for income and 62 percent citing a desire to stay mentally focused.

While the trend has an obvious upside in that clients may need to draw on less retirement savings in the early years of retirement, advisers must plan for a range of possible outcomes and expenses beyond the traditional planning scenarios.

"Because there is no fixed date, it makes the financial planning process more complex," said Marlena Pospiech, senior manager at BMO's wealth planning group.

More:
Gradual Retirement Poses Planning Challenges

The Employee Benefit Research Institute has released its 23rd annual Retirement Confidence Survey. The findings showed the lowest level of confidence about the respondent's ability to retire comfortably (or at all) in the survey's history.

While some of this might be tied to the recent economic downturn and the financial difficulties it has caused, I suspect that a portion is also tied to a lack of planning for retirement. For the people in that category, here are four steps to boost your confidence in your ability to retire.

Determine Your Retirement Needs.

Take a look at how you would like to live in retirement and try to place a price tag on that lifestyle, ideally in terms of a monthly figure. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

--Will I stay in my current house or relocate?

--Will I have a mortgage in retirement?

--What do I plan to do in retirement? Travel? Other activities? What will this cost?

--Will I live in a low or a high-cost part of the country (or the world)?

--Will I work during part of your retirement?

Answers are likely easier the closer you are to retirement, but at the very least try to come up with a number or a couple of numbers that might meet your monthly retirement needs to at least give yourself an idea of where you are heading.

Read more here:
4 Steps to Boost Your Retirement Confidence