It's pretty much a given these days that human beings are bad at retirement planning. Heck, whole countries appear to have screwed it up pretty badly. (I'm talking about you, Europe.) But closer to home, I fear that we lawyers are not immune from the magical thinking described in this NYT's op-ed, "Our Ridiculous Approach to Retirement." I can't vouch for data or the economic analysis of the piece, but I did like the concluding sentence of this paragraph, as it is the same point we try to make in relation to self-lawyering:
It is now more than 30 years since the 401(k)/Individual Retirement Account model appeared on the scene. This do-it-yourself pension system has failed. It has failed because it expects individuals without investment expertise to reap the same results as professional investors and money managers. What results would you expect if you were asked to pull your own teeth or do your own electrical wiring?
Anyone got a rebuttal? Or a solution?
