September 2017

24Sep

Pension Schemes, Taxation and Stakeholder Wealth: The USS Rule Changes

By Emmanouil Platanakis (University of Bath) & Charles Sutcliffe (University of Reading) Although tax relief on pensions is a controversial area of government expenditure, this is the first study of the tax effects of a real world defined benefit pension scheme - the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). First, we estimate the tax and national insurance contribution (NIC) effects of the rule changes in 2011 on the gross and net wealth of the sponsor, government, and 16 age cohorts of members,...

September 24, 2017
Articles, Management, Regulation, Savings, ,
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24Sep

Simplifying Choices in Defined Contribution Retirement Plan Design: A Case Study

By Donald B. Keim (University of Pennsylvania) & Olivia S. Mitchell (University of Pennsylvania; National Bureau of Economic Research) The growth and popularity of defined contribution pensions, along with the government’s increasing attention to retirement plan costs and investment choices provided, make it important to understand how people select their retirement plan investments. This paper shows how employees in a large firm altered their fund allocations when the employer streamlined its pension fund menu and deleted nearly half of the...

September 24, 2017
Articles, Investing, Labor Market, Savings,
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23Sep

Asset Management Market Study Final Decision: Market Investigation Reference (MIR) on investment consultancy services and fiduciary management services

By FCA This document sets out our final decision to make a Market Investigation Reference (MIR) in relation to investment consultancy services and fiduciary management services. Alongside our interim report of our Asset Management Market study we provisionally decided to make a MIR. We received a number of responses which we have carefully taken into account when reaching our final decision. In addition, the three largest investment consultants offered us a package of undertakings in lieu (UIL) of a reference to...

September 23, 2017
Articles, Books, Investing, Regulation
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22Sep

Using Behavioral Science to Increase Retirement Savings

By Andrew Fertig, Jaclyn Lefkowitz & Alissa Fishbane We all deserve a dignified retirement, yet for many of us saving enough remains an obscure, unrealized goal. In an ideal world, planning for our retirement would begin with our first job, continue throughout our working years, and end in sufficient savings for a comfortable future. This pathway may be possible for the few among us with employer-provided pensions, where someone else handles all the planning and saving. Yet trends in the retirement...

September 22, 2017
Articles, Investing, Savings, Slider-Left, System Sustainability, , , , , ,
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20Sep

The Economic Importance of Financial Literacy: Theory and Evidence

By Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell In this paper, we undertake an assessment of the rapidly growing body of research on financial literacy. We start with an overview of theoretical research which casts financial knowledge as a form of investment in human capital. Endogenizing financial knowledge has important implications for welfare as well as policies intended to enhance levels of financial knowledge in the larger population. Next, we draw on recent surveys to establish how much (or how little)...

September 20, 2017
Articles, Investing, Savings, , ,
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20Sep

Borrowing on the Wrong Credit Card: Evidence from Mexico

By Alejandro Ponce (World Justice Project), Enrique Seira (Banco de México; ITAM) & Guillermo Zamarripa (FUNDEF, Mexico) We study how consumers allocate debt across credit cards they already hold using new data on credit card activity for a representative sample of consumers with two homogeneous cards in Mexico. We find that relative prices are a very weak predictor of the allocation of debt, purchases, and payments. On average, consumers pay 31 % above their minimum financing cost. Evidence on cross-card...

September 20, 2017
Articles, Management, Savings
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15Sep

Nudging Retirement Savings: A Field Experiment on Supplemental Plans

By Robert L. Clark, Robert G. Hammond, Melinda Sandler Morrill, Christelle Khalaf Although supplemental saving plans can be an important part of an individual's financial security in retirement, contribution rates remain low, particularly among those with lower salaries and less education. We report findings from a field experiment that distributed an informational nudge containing information on key aspects of the employer-provided supplemental saving plans of older public employees in North Carolina. Among workers participating in a supplemental plan, individuals who...

September 15, 2017
Articles, Investing, Labor Market, Pension design, Slider-Left
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15Sep

Recasting Social Canada: A Reconsideration of Federal Jurisdiction Over Social Policy

By Sujit Choudhry (Center for Constitutional Transitions) Who speaks for Canada? For the past fifty years, during both the expansion and the retraction of the Canadian welfare state, the politics of social policy has revolved around this single question. In this article, I step back from the politics of social policy to reflect on the constitutional framework within which that politics occurs. My focus is the scope of the federal government’s jurisdiction over social policy. A distinctive feature of Canadian...

September 15, 2017
Articles, Regulation, ,
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15Sep

Drawing Down Retirement Savings – Do Pensions, Taxes and Government Transfers Matter Much for Optimal Decisions?

By Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald (Independent), Richard J. Morrison (Independent), Marvin Avery (Human Resources and Skills Development), Lars Osberg (Dalhousie University) This paper examines the importance of pensions (employment and social security), taxes and government transfers for alternative retirement savings drawdown strategies, based on Canadian evidence. Using as examples single elderly Canadians at the 10th, median and 90th percentiles of the income distribution, we use a lifetime utility framework to evaluate an illustrative set of six popular drawdown strategies. Our longitudinal dynamic...

September 15, 2017
Adequacy, Articles, Pension design, Savings, Slider, , ,
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08Sep

Annuity Options in Public Pension Plans: The Curious Case of Social Security Leveling

By Robert L. Clark, Robert G. Hammond, Melinda S. Morrill, David Vanderweide Social Security Leveling is an annuity option that allows participants to receive a level income before and after age 62. The retiree receives a larger pension benefit prior to age 62, but then the pension benefit is lowered at age 62 when the individual is expected to claim Social Security benefits. This option is not uncommon in public pension plans, yet little is known about how this option...

September 8, 2017
Aging, Articles, Pension design, Regulation, ,
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