Retirement Gamble - Movie Review Example

Lecturer: Affiliation: Due Movie Review The “Retirement Gamble” is an investigative documentary that concerns with savings and the problems associated with the 401(k) retirement plan and other similar plans. The documentary reviews several aspects about the presented retirement plans whereby some poor investment choices are offered. For instance, the fees that are imbedded in some of the retirement plans are so high that it is difficult for an average participant to uncover. The responsibility of saving enough retirement funds has been granted to the employee in the 401(k) retirement plan.

This act has led to confusion and frustration among the employees. It is unlike in the past whereby many employees were covered by a defined benefit pension plan that put the risks of investments and responsibilities entirely to the employer. I think this documentary aims at enlightening members of the public to make informed decisions concerning their retirement saving plans to avoid frustrations in the future. There is an important concept that is brought about in the video concerning the availability of actively managed funds that are worthy the value of investors’ money.

The authors argue that there are no actively managed funds that can add value to the investors’ investments. I disagree with the argument because there are several beneficial actively managed funds in the market. Moreover, Christine Marcks, the head of Prudential Retirement, argues that she is not aware of any research findings showing the advantages of low cost index investments over the high cost active management. The general public needs to be made aware that the task of finding and determining whether the actively managed funds are worthy the investors’ money should lie under the responsibility of investment accountants.

Research shows that one third of Americans do not have any retirement saving plans. Nevertheless, half of the American population think that they cannot save enough funds for their retirement. These findings show how uninformed many employees are. There is the need to have investment consultants who will enable the investors to choose the best retirement saving plans to suit their needs. The documentary has highlighted many detrimental aspects concerning the current retirement saving plans.

However, it has not addressed the following question; is there any single 401 (k) plan that investors can rely on? This question is important because it will help in solving the current problems facing employees rather than blaming the financial industries for taking too much money from investors while offering little value in return. The documentary focuses on showing how the traditional retirement saving plans were favorable to the employees because the risks of investments were left to the employers.

It should have focused more on advising the employees on the best ways to deal with the current problems bearing in mind that the responsibility of saving enough funds has been left to the employees and not the employers anymore. Conclusion The “Retirement Gamble” documentary presents the problems associated with many current retirement saving plans including the 401 (k) plans. It shows how the responsibility of saving enough funds for retirement has been left to the employees unlike in the past whereby the employers used to bear it.

However, little focus has been made in showing investors the best ways to deal with the problems facing them. Work Cited Retirement Gamble. Dir. Martin Smith. Perf. Will Lyman. 2013. DVD.