Social Security: Observations on Improving Distribution of Death Information

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Congress, law enforcement, and others have expressed concern about the misuse of Social Security numbers (SSNs). Death information collected by the Social Security Administration (SSA), including the SSN, generally reaches financial institutions and other entities within one to two months of a person's death. SSA and the National Technical Information Service could improve the timeliness of the distribution of the Death Master File. Improving the timeliness of death information to the financial services industry would help to narrow the window of time that a criminal has to open new accounts using a deceased individual's identity. Additional education for the financial services industry about the availability and contents of the Death Master File would also be helpful. Providing timely death information and making financial institutions more aware of a reliable source of such information could deter criminals from using deceased individuals' social security numbers to obtain false identities for fraudulent activities.

Are Executives in Short Supply? Evidence from Deaths’ Events

Using exhaustive administrative data on Italian social security records, we construct measures of local labor market thickness for executives that vary by industry and location. We show that firm performance is strongly and persistently affected by executive death, but only in thin local labor markets. The new executives hired after death events in thin local labor markets have lower education levels and are more likely to be replaced. These predictions are consistent with a simple model of executive search in which market thickness determines the arrival rate of applications for executive positions

Are executives in short supply? Evidence from death events

Using exhaustive administrative data on Italian social security records, we construct measures of local labour market thickness for executives that vary by industry and location. We show that firm performance is strongly and persistently affected by executive death, but only in thin local labour markets. The new executives hired after death events in thin local labour markets have lower education levels and are more likely to be replaced. These predictions are consistent with a simple model of executive search in which market thickness determines the arrival rate of applications for executive positions

Equity Analysis Of Service Corporation International

This paper is an equity analysis of Service Corporation International (SCI) conducting research through security analysis. Based off of the research and valuation of SCI, I have recommended a Buy recommendation. As the largest provider of death care services and products in North America they are well positioned to benefit the most from the aging population. The company has three strategies for capturing potential sales through pre-need cemetery sales, preneed funeral sales, and at-need sales. This allows the death care company to focus on a wider range of customers, age wise, allowing them to work with people who could have potentially decades left in their life span. Moving forward SCI will benefit from their company’s large size and backlog. Compared to industry competitors that are publicly traded are incredibly small when stacked up against SCI. Most of the competition facing SCI is due to positioning, SCI operates in a highly fragmented industry with many small locally owned private operations. Many consumers choose their death care provider based off familiarity and geographic positioning. When looking at the companies backlog they have $10.7 billion in unrecognized sales. These sales will be recognized when the time comes to perform the customers service

The Gun Industry in America: The Overlooked Player in a National Crisis

This report discusses the gaps in the current law regarding gun industry regulation and oversight. It then offers a series of policy solutions to address these gaps, including:Increasing oversight of gun manufacturers, importers, exporters, and dealersRequiring licensed gun dealers to implement security measures to prevent theftStrengthening the National Firearms Act review and determination processStrengthening oversight of homemade guns, ammunition, and silencersGiving the Consumer Product Safety Commission authority to regulate guns  and ammunition for safetyRepealing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms ActThe high rates of gun death experienced in this country are not inevitable or, as some in the gun lobby claim, "the price of freedom." There is much more that can be done to provide better oversight and regulation of the gun industry, which would have a significant impact on reducing gun violence and making all of our communities safer

Comparing the Economic and Conventional Approaches to Financial Planning

The conventional approach to retirement and life insurance planning, which is used throughout the financial planning industry, differs markedly from the economic approach. The conventional approach asks households to specify how much they want to spend before retirement, after retirement, and in the event of an untimely death of the head or spouse. It then determines the amounts of saving and life insurance needed to achieve these targets. The economic approach is based on the life-cycle model of saving. Its goal is to smooth households' living standards over their life cycles and to ensure comparable living standards for potential survivors. In the economic approach, spending targets are endogenous. They are derived by calculating the most the household can afford to consume in the present given that it wants to preserve that living standard in the future. Although spending targets under the conventional approach can be adjusted in an iterative process to approximate those derived under the economic approach, there are practical limits to doing so. This is particularly the case for households experiencing changing demographics or facing borrowing constraints. This paper illustrates the different saving and insurance recommendations provided by economic financial planning software and the practical application of traditional financial planning software. The two software programs are Economic Security Planner (ESPlanner), developed by Economic Security Planning, Inc., and Quicken Financial Planner (QFP), developed by Intuit. Each program is run on 24 cases, 20 of which are stylized and 4 of which are actual households. The two software programs recommend dramatically different levels of saving or life insurance in each of the 24 cases. The different saving recommendations primarily reflect ESPlanner's adjustment for household demographics and borrowing constraints. The different life insurance recommendations reflect these same factors as well as ESPlanner's accounting for contingent household plans and for Social Security's survivor benefits. The less detailed tax and Social Security retirement benefit calculations used in our implementation of QFP also explain some of the differences between the two programs.

Securing Nightlife: Media Representations of Public and Private Policing

There is ongoing ambivalence concerning door staff and crowd controllers in the night-time economy (NTE). Expanded private security is often acknowledged as a legitimate solution to the fear people experience in relation to urban night leisure. Yet there is significant official, media and public concern regarding the lack of regulation and governance over an industry still grounded in masculine aggression and with a long history of criminal association. Australian public and media concerns about ‘bouncers’ have grown dramatically in line with the expansion of night leisure, peaking after episodes such as the violent death of former cricketer David Hookes in 2004. This paper draws on the results of a fifteen-year archival search of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Telegraph and other major Australian newspapers to analyse concerns regarding private security in a society that is increasingly anxious and sensitised to the risks associated with the city after dark.Sydney Institute of Criminology; School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Sydne

Individual Investors and Portfolio Diversification in Late Victorian Britain: How Diversified Were Victorian Financial Portfolios?

This article investigates Victorian investor financial portfolio strategies in England and Wales during the second half of the nineteenth century. We find that investors held on average about half of their gross wealth in the form of four or five liquid financial securities, but were reluctant to adopt fully contemporary financial advice to invest equal amounts in securities or to spread risk across the globe. They generally held under-diversified portfolios and proximity to their investments may have been an alternative to diversification as a means of risk reduction, especially for the less wealthy

Railroad Retirement Board: Retirement, Survivor, Disability, Unemployment, and Sickness Benefits

[Excerpt] The Railroad Retirement Board (RRB), an independent federal agency, administers retirement, survivor, disability, unemployment, and sickness insurance for railroad workers and their families under the Railroad Retirement Act (RRA) and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act (RUIA). These acts cover workers who are employed by railroads engaged in interstate commerce and related subsidiaries, railroad associations, and railroad labor organizations. Lifelong railroad workers receive railroad retirement benefits instead of Social Security benefits; railroad workers with nonrailroad experience receive benefits either from railroad retirement or Social Security, depending on the length of their railroad service. The number of railroad workers has been declining since the 1950s, although the rate of decline has been irregular and recent years have seen increases in railroad employment after reaching an all-time low of 215,000 workers in January 2010. Recently, railroad employment peaked in April 2015 to 253,000 workers, the highest level since November 1999, and then declined through FY2017, falling to 221,000 workers. The total number of beneficiaries under the RRA and RUIA decreased from 623,000 in FY2008 to 574,000 in FY2017, and the total benefit payments increased from $10.1 billion to$12.6 billion during the same time. During FY2017, the RRB paid nearly $12.5 billion in retirement, disability, and survivor benefits to approximately 548,000 beneficiaries. Almost$105.4 million in unemployment and sickness benefits were paid to approximately 28,000 claimants. This report explains the programs under RRA and RUIA, including how each program is financed, the eligibility rules, and the types of benefits available to railroad workers and family members. It also discusses how railroad retirement relates to the Social Security system

Encouraging Corporate Innovation for Our Homeland During the Best of Times for the Worst of Times: Extending Safety Act Protections to Natural Disasters’

This article first analyzes the innovative tort reform of the SAFETY Act and then argues for expansion of SAFETY Act type risk protection to natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes and wildfires. The SAFETY Act was drafted to stimulate the development and deployment of technologies that combat terrorism by providing liability protection. Applying the same type of legislation to natural disasters will provide a commensurate benefit of encouraging preparedness and development of technologies that could mitigate harms resulting from natural disasters. The Department of Homeland Security voiced a desire to increase the use of the SAFETY Act by private industry. This article argues that one way to increase the utility of the SAFETY Act and provide more value for the American public is for Congress to extend SAFETY Act protections, by amendment or new legislation, to cover risk related to national catastrophes