October 2017

16Oct

How the Growing Gap in Life Expectancy May Affect Retirement Benefits and Reforms

By Alan J. Auerbach, Kerwin K. Charles, Courtney C. Coile, William Gale, Dana Goldman, Ronald Lee, Charles M. Lucas, Peter R. Orszag, Louise M. Sheiner, Bryan Tysinger, David N. Weil, Justin Wolfers, Rebeca Wong Older Americans have experienced dramatic gains in life expectancy in recent decades, but an emerging literature reveals that these gains are accumulating mostly to those at the top of the income distribution. We explore how growing inequality in life expectancy affects lifetime benefits from Social Security,...

October 16, 2017
Articles, Funding, Labor Market, Regulation,
Read more...
16Oct

Planning for Retirement? The Importance of Time Preferences

By Robert L. Clark, Robert G. Hammond, Christelle Khalaf, Melinda Sandler Morrill Ensuring retirement income security is a priority for individuals, employers, and policymakers. Using merged administrative and survey data for public sector workers in North Carolina, we explore how workers’ characteristics and preferences are associated with planning and saving for retirement. We then assess the “quality” of a retirement plan and whether retirement behavior is consistent with these plans. The findings indicate that the way that individuals discount future...

October 16, 2017
Aging, Articles, Pension design, Savings
Read more...
09Oct

Saving the Next Billion from Old Age Poverty. Global Lessons for Local Action

This Book Project is the first of a series of initiatives by pinBox to jumpstart a global dialogue and collaborative action on pension inclusion across Asia, Africa and Latin America. The Book presents the policy outlook, past efforts and planned interventions by several developing countries as well as thematic chapters on the key principles and issues in design and implementation of inclusive pension arrangements. This book was realeased on October 12 on the pinBox Digital Micro-Pension Inclusion Roundtable 2017 For more information...

October 9, 2017
Adequacy, Aging, Articles, Books, Corporate Governance, Funding, Investing, Labor Market, Management, News, Pension design, Regulation, Savings, Slider, Supervision, System Sustainability
Read more...
08Oct

Endowment vs Pension Returns

By Michael Karris (EndowBridge Capital) Does the Endowment Model still work? Judging by large endowments’ steady outperformance of a 70% global stock /30% US bond index, THE ANSWER IS YES. Versus a 60% US stock / 40% US bond index, the answer is not as clear cut. Even so, the Endowment Model still adds value for a long-term portfolio that uses alternative assets, especially venture capital. The lucrative illiquidity premium has generated superior returns for U.S. endowments versus other investors, especially through...

October 8, 2017
Articles, Investing, Savings
Read more...
08Oct

Occupational Pension Funds (IORPs) & Sustainability: What Does the Prudent Person Principle Say?

By Alexandra Horvathova, Rasmus Kristian Feldthusen & Vibe Ulfbeck (University of Copenhagen) The European Union encourages individuals to save in private and occupational pension funds to complement their state saving-plans. Throughout their lives, employers directly sponsor occupational retirement saving plans, so individual employees may top up their future pensions. While the European Union clearly supports the formation and cross-border participation in these financial vehicles by adopting regulatory framework, the EU has also decided to determine a common investment decision standard...

October 8, 2017
Aging, Articles, Pension design, Regulation, , ,
Read more...
08Oct

Occupational Pension Funds (IORPs) & Sustainability: What Does the Prudent Person Principle Say?

By Alexandra Horvathova, Rasmus Kristian Feldthusen & Vibe Ulfbeck (University of Copenhagen) The European Union encourages individuals to save in private and occupational pension funds to complement their state saving-plans. Throughout their lives, employers directly sponsor occupational retirement saving plans, so individual employees may top up their future pensions. While the European Union clearly supports the formation and cross-border participation in these financial vehicles by adopting regulatory framework, the EU has also decided to determine a common investment decision standard...

October 8, 2017
Aging, Articles, Pension design, Regulation, , ,
Read more...
08Oct

Is There a Retirement Crisis? Examining Retirement Planning in the Household and Government Sectors

By Andrew G. Biggs (American Enterprise Institute) In response to a widespread perception that households are undersaving for retirement, policymakers have proposed expanding Social Security and establishing supplementary retirement saving plans run by state governments. But these proposals take place against a background of record-high unfunded liabilities for government-run retirement programs. If government entities have either financial or political difficulty funding their existing obligations to retirees, shifting greater retirement provision from households to government could potentially worsen existing shortfalls in...

October 8, 2017
Articles, Funding, Savings, System Sustainability, ,
Read more...
02Oct

Do Limits on Institutional Investment Increase Opportunities For Ratings Shopping at the Margin of Investment and Speculative Grade?

By Joseph Kerstein (Yeshiva University - Syms School of Business), Sungsoo Kim (Rutgers Business School - Camden), Murugappa (Murgie) Krishnan (Yeshiva University) Rating agencies are expected to be concerned about their long-term reputation because if they lose the trust of investors their ratings would lose credibility and value. We expect that there is less effective monitoring and hence more opportunities for ratings shopping within speculative grades because pensions and other similar institutions known for effective monitoring are limited by regulatory...

October 2, 2017
Adequacy, Articles, Investing
Read more...
02Oct

Tonuity: A Novel Individual-Oriented Retirement Plan

An Chen, Peter Hieber & Jakob Klein (University of Ulm - Department of Mathematics and Economics) For insurance companies in Europe, the introduction of Solvency II leads to a tightening of rules for solvency capital provision. In life insurance, this especially affects retirement products that contain a significant portion of longevity risk (for example conventional annuities). Insurance companies might react by price increases for those products, and, at the same time, might think of alternatives that shift longevity risk (at...

October 2, 2017
Articles, Funding, Investing, Pension design
Read more...
02Oct

Life Insurance as a Retirement Income Tool

By Russell DeLibero & Wade D. Pfau (The American College; McLean Asset Management) Given its tax-preferential treatment, careful study is warranted to determine whether life insurance can play an important role in an overall retirement portfolio. This study develops hypothetical scenarios for different types of individuals with varying ages and distribution periods, while using a historical outlook to determine the proper structure of a variable universal life insurance policy. We compare a variable universal life policy to different investment vehicles...

October 2, 2017
Adequacy, Articles, Labor Market, Savings,
Read more...