April 2018

Do pension participants want the freedom to choose or the freedom to snooze?

By Hendrik P. van Dalen and Kène Henkens Individual freedom of choice is a much heralded and cherished principle in democracies. Milton Friedman and colleagues at his alma mater, the University of Chicago, made this a cornerstone of their belief (Friedman & Friedman, 1990). The freedom of choice is the antidote to excessive government interference and an instrument which enables people to realize their goals and discipline agents and organizations. The call for freedom is getting louder as individualization of...

Implications of Behavioural Economics for Mandatory Individual Account Pension Systems

By Waldo Tapia & Juan Yermo In individual account pension systems, members bear the risks and consequences of their investment decisions. If participants behave as predicted by economic theory, such responsibility would be welfare enhancing as members would invest and hold a portfolio of financial assets with a risk-return combination consistent with their investment horizon, degree of risk aversion and the portfolio of other assets they hold, including their human capital and, where relevant, their home. Behavioural economists and empirical...

Survey of Investment Choice by Pension Fund Members

By Edina Rozinka & Waldo Tapia A recent trend in individual accounts schemes is the introduction and expansion of investment alternatives to plan members. The goal of investment choice is to enable plan members to select the optimal investment portfolio that matches their particular risk-return preference and ultimately, maximizes their retirement income. This document focuses on some key analytical and policy issues regarding investment choice by pension plan/fund members in occupational defined contribution and personal pension arrangements during the accumulation...

Active Investment Decisions of Members in the Chilean DC Pension System: Performance and Learning over time

By Olga Fuentes, Pamela Searle & Félix Villatoro This paper studies the investment decisions of members of the Chilean DC pension System using administrative data. Since 2002, members of the system have had the opportunity to choose between five different types of funds. However they have made little voluntary changes. This reinforces the importance of establishing adequate default investment allocations for affiliates. We characterize and study the performance of those affiliates that make changes and find that they are mostly...

Supervising default investment funds

As the proportion of retirement income provided by private pensions becomes increasingly important, the quality and effectiveness of their supervision becomes more and more crucial. The IOPS Working Paper Series, launched in August 2007, highlights a range of challenges to be met in the development of national pension supervisory systems.The papers review the nature and effectiveness of new and established pensions supervisory systems, providing examples, experiences and lessons learnt for the benefit of IOPS members and the broader pensions...

Pensions: Backgrounds, Trends and Issues

By Henry J. Mullen This text examines the extent to which pension plans invest in hedge funds and private equity, the potential benefits and challenges of hedge fund investments, the potential benefits and challenges of private equity investments, and what mechanisms regulate pension plan investments in hedge funds and private equity. Get the book Here!

How a New Bond Can Greatly Improve Retirement Security

By Adam Kobor (New York University (NYU)) & Arun Muralidhar (AlphaEngine Global Investment Solutions; George Washington University) There is a growing retirement crisis and most of the focus has been on the fact that individuals are not saving enough for retirement, may not have access to pension schemes, or are financially illiterate. However, the bigger issue might be that the assets/financial products available to investors, including those that offer legal protection to plan sponsors, may not be appropriate for the typical...

March 2018

Evaluating Retirement Strategies: A Utility-Based Approach

By Javier Estrada (IESE Business School) & Mark Kritzman (Windham Capital Management) Retirees need to make two critical financial decisions, namely, the withdrawal rate and the asset allocation of their portfolios. We propose a methodology that retirees, and particularly advisors, could use to make these decisions in an optimal way. We introduce a new variable, the coverage ratio, and a theoretical approach, based on utility. Our approach can be used to make optimal decisions during both the accumulation and the...

Advice That Sticks : How to give financial advice that people will follow

By Moira Somers The advice is sound; the client seems eager; and then… nothing happens! Too often, this is the experience that financial professionals encounter in their daily work. When good recommendations go unimplemented, clients’ well-being is compromised, opportunities are lost, and the professional relationship grows strained. Advice that Sticks takes aim at the problem of financial non-adherence. Written by a neuropsychologist and financial change expert, this book examines the five main factors that determine whether a client will follow through...

Growing Pension Deficits and the Expenditure Decisions of UK Companies

By Philip Bunn (Bank of England), Paul Mizen (University of Nottingham; Bank of England; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)) & Pawel Smietanka (Bank of England) Large deficits have opened up on defined benefit pension schemes in the United Kingdom since 2007, and at the same time investment expenditure has been subdued; this is a common phenomenon in other countries too. We use privileged access to a unique new data set from The Pensions Regulator and two identification schemes to...