FINRA Investor Education Foundation Funds Research on Financial Risk of Longevity in Retirement

Washington, D.C. — The FINRA Investor Education Foundation has awarded a grant of $484,000 to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to explore how individual investors are managing the risk of outliving their retirement savings, and how annuities could provide a solution to the problem.

Formerly known as the NASD Investor Education Foundation, the FINRA Investor Education Foundation was established in 2003 and is the largest foundation in the United States dedicated to investor education.

The research project, called How Investors Are Facing Longevity Risk: The Role of Annuities, will analyze the investment decisions of investors approaching or already in retirement. The research will determine to what extent investors are addressing longevity risk and what features would make annuities more attractive to the individual investor. The low rate of annuitization will be analyzed and the potential benefits of annuitization explored.

The FINRA Investor Education Foundation supports innovative research and educational projects that give investors the tools they need to better understand the markets and the basic principles of saving and investing. To date, the FINRA Foundation has approved $10.4 million in grants and an additional $10.2 million in direct investor education programming. For details about grant programs and other FINRA Foundation initiatives, visit www.finrafoundation.org.

FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, is the largest non-governmental regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States. Created in 2007 through the consolidation of NASD and NYSE Member Regulation, FINRA is dedicated to investor protection and market integrity through effective and efficient regulation and complementary compliance and technology-based services. FINRA touches virtually every aspect of the securities business - from registering and educating all industry participants to examining securities firms; writing and enforcing rules and the federal securities laws; informing and educating the investing public; providing trade reporting and other industry utilities, and administering the largest dispute resolution forum for investors and registered firms.

For more information, please visit our Web site at www.finra.org.