February 2017

12Feb

Low Returns, Longevity Mean Greater Retirement Savings Rate Needed

Investors facing inflated asset prices, and the lower expected future returns they imply, must accept the reality that they will need to save more to maintain their lifestyle in retirement, researchers conclude. In a research report, “Required Retirement Savings Rates Today,” written by David Blanchett, CFA [Chartered Financial Analyst], CFP [Certified Financial Planner], head of retirement research at Morningstar Investment Management LLC; Michael Finke, Ph.D., CFP, dean and chief academic officer at The American College of Financial Services, and Wade...

February 12, 2017
News
Read more...
12Feb

Watch What Indexing Does for Public Pensions

The unfunded liabilities of public pensions are out of control across the country. My state, Illinois, is the most severe case, with only 40 percent of those liabilities funded. Given the magnitude of the problem, and the political and legal obstacles to fixing it, it remains tempting to underplay the importance of straightforward financial changes that could put the funds on much more solid ground. Worsening the problems of public pension systems nationwide is that they have proved to be...

February 12, 2017
News
Read more...
12Feb

US court upholds Obama-era retirement advice rule

A US federal judge on Wednesday upheld an Obama-era rule designed to avoid conflicts of interests when brokers give retirement advice, in a possible setback for President Donald Trump's efforts to scale back government regulation. The stinging 81-page ruling comes just days after Trump ordered the Labor Department to review the "fiduciary" rule — a move widely interpreted as an effort to delay or kill the regulation. The decision by Chief Judge Barbara Lynn for the US District Court for the...

February 12, 2017
News
Read more...
10Feb

Why More Encore Entrepreneurs Would Help Aging In America

“You build companies the way other people bake cakes" is a compliment a fellow professor shared with me a few years back. Maybe it’s partly because I’m the daughter of an entrepreneur — the founder of a paint company (even though my dad wanted me to have a "secure job" by becoming a teacher and then a professor, which I’ve done). But I loved, and still love, the adventure of building companies. And I think there’s blue ocean water for...

February 10, 2017
News
Read more...
10Feb

Why Pensions Top To-Do List of Brazil’s President: QuickTake Q&A

Facing a make-or-break year to pull Brazil out of its worst recession in over a century, President Michel Temer is betting that reforming the nation’s pension system will restore public and investor confidence. It’s a task that proved too difficult for former presidents as popular as Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and as market-friendly as Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Both Temer and the pension reform are unpopular, but the president has widespread congressional support and argues that he is prioritizing...

February 10, 2017
News
Read more...
10Feb

Good Intentions, Bad Outcomes: Social Policy, Informality, and Economic Growth in Mexico

Despite various reform efforts, Mexico has experienced economic stability but little growth. Today more than half of all Mexican workers are employed informally, and one out of every four is poor. Good Intentions, Bad Outcomes argues that incoherent social programs significantly contribute to this state of affairs and it suggests reforms to improve the situation. Over the past decade, Mexico has channeled an increasing number of resources into subsidizing the creation of low-productivity, informal jobs. These social programs have...

February 10, 2017
Books
Read more...
10Feb

OECD Pensions Outlook 2016: Edition 2016 (Volume 2016)

The Oecd Pensions Outlook 2016 assesses policy issues regarding strengthening pension systems and, in particular, funded pension plans. It covers defined benefits and defined contribution pension plans; fiscal incentives to save for retirement; policy measures to improve the financial advice for retirement; annuity products and their guarantees; pension design and financial education; and the pension arrangements for public-sector workers, including a comparison with those for private sector workers. Read more...

February 10, 2017
Books
Read more...
10Feb

Pension and Employee Benefit Statutes and Regulations: Selected Sections (Selected Statutes)

This statutory pamphlet is compatible with all leading casebooks on pension and employee benefits law. It includes sections from the Internal Revenue Code, Employee Retirement Income Security Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, Treasury Regulations, ADEA Regulations and ERISA Regulations. Read more...

February 10, 2017
Books
Read more...
10Feb

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness [Expanded Edition]

By Richard H. Thaler & Cass R. Sunstein Every day, we make decisions on topics ranging from personal investments to schools for our children to the meals we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. The reason, the authors explain in this important exploration of choice architecture, is that, being human, we all are susceptible to various biases that can lead us to blunder. Our mistakes make us poorer and less healthy; we often make bad...

February 10, 2017
Books
Read more...
10Feb

Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics

Get ready to change the way you think about economics. Richard H. Thaler has spent his career studying the radical notion that the central agents in the economy are humans―predictable, error-prone individuals. Misbehaving is his arresting, frequently hilarious account of the struggle to bring an academic discipline back down to earth―and change the way we think about economics, ourselves, and our world. Read more...

February 10, 2017
Books
Read more...