The Putnam Lifetime Income Score^SM represents an estimate of the percentage of current income that an individual might need to replace from savings in order to fund retirement expenses. For example, consider an individual, 45 years old, with an income of $100,000 per year. A Lifetime Income Score of 64% indicates that the individual is on track to be able to generate $64,000 in retirement income (in today’s dollars), i.e., 64% of current income. This income estimate is based on the individual’s amount of current savings as well as future contributions to savings (as provided by participants in the survey) and includes investments in 401(k) plans, IRAs, taxable accounts, variable annuities, cash value of life insurance, and income from defined benefit pension plans. It also includes future wage growth from present age (e.g., 45) to the retirement age of 65 (1% greater than the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W)) as well an estimate for future Social Security benefits.

The Lifetime Income Score estimate is derived from the present value discounting of the future cash flows associated with an individual’s retirement savings and expenses. It incorporates the uncertainty around investment returns (consistent with historical return volatility) as well as the mortality uncertainty that creates a retirement horizon of indeterminate length. Specifically, the Lifetime Income Score procedure begins with the selection of a present value discount rate based on the individual’s current retirement asset allocation (stocks, bonds, and cash). A rate is determined from historical returns such that 90% of the empirical observations of the returns associated with the asset allocation are greater than the selected discount rate. This rate is then used for all discounting of the survival probability-weighted cash flows to derive a present value of a retirement plan. Alternative spending levels in retirement are examined in conjunction with this discounting process until the present value of cash flows is exactly zero. The spending level that generates a zero retirement plan present value is the income estimate selected as the basis for the Lifetime Income Score. In other words, it is an income level that is consistent with a 90% confidence in funding retirement. It is viewed as a "sustainable" spending level and one that is an appropriate benchmark for retirement planning.

The survey is not a prediction, and results may be higher or lower based on actual market returns.