Akin to the famed Stanford Marshmallow study on delayed gratification, deferral of Social Security income often maximizes lifetime benefits, particularly for those with above-average life expectancy.
There has been a lot of discussion about a recent academic paper, "Why Indexing Works," which makes a statistical case for passive investing in equities. The same logic applied to bonds, though, may make the opposite case: Passive fixed income management doesn't work, but active bond management does.
Has the 70-80% replacement rate for retirement income met its use-by date?