June 2022
09Jun

Factors Influencing the Choice of Pension Distribution at Retirement

By Robert L. Clark & Olivia S. Mitchell One of the most important financial decisions that pension participants make concerns how they access their pension assets when they terminate employment with their plan sponsor. Their choices depend both on own preferences and the options offered by their retirement plan. This paper examines both past and future pension withdrawal choices for those with defined benefit and defined contribution pensions, separately. Our data are drawn from a set of pension distribution questions...

June 9, 2022
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03Jun

Markets and Mandates: Retirement in Chile and the United States

By Manisha Padi Ordinary Americans are accustomed to a strict separation between private markets and public-benefits programs. Government programs, such as Social Security for retirees, disburse benefits to households without regard to the private options available to them. Conversely, private-market regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, make rules about private retirement savings without accounting for public retirement benefits. The result is a disjointed experience for American retirees, whose public benefits are restricted by the Social Security Administration but whose...

June 3, 2022
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May 2022

Serenity Now, Save Later? Evidence on Retirement Savings Puzzles from a 401(K) Field Experiment
26May

Serenity Now, Save Later? Evidence on Retirement Savings Puzzles from a 401(K) Field Experiment

By Saurabh Bhargava & Lynn Conell-Price Economists have advanced several psychological frictions to explain why many 401(k)-eligible employees undersave for retirement despite generous matching incentives. We provide evidence on four of these frictions through a field experiment randomizing undersaving employees to information- and incentive-based treatments linked to a survey assessing each friction’s baseline incidence. We describe four main findings: (1) We corroborate prior work showing pervasive deficits in retirement literacy and their correlation with saving but reject any meaningful increase...

May 26, 2022
Articles, Pension design, Savings, ,
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19May

The 2022 Pension Answer Book

By Stephen J. Krass A standard in its field, The 2022 Pension Answer Book discusses in detail the full spectrum of pension topics—from qualification requirements to taxation of distributions, from minimum distribution requirements to 401(k) plans. It covers the most up-to-date and significant legislative, regulatory, and case law developments affecting these plans. As a decision-making tool, combining theory and practice-based guidance, The 2022 Pension Answer Book offers insight and clarification on the critical issues affecting pension administration and compliance. In...

May 19, 2022
Books, Pension design, System Characterization, , , ,
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12May

Impact of financial investment on the individual’s confidence of happy retirement life

By Yan-Leung Cheung, Billy S C Mak, Hao Shu & Weiqiang Tan The study examines the impact of financial investment on the individual’s confidence in happy retirement life using data from 735 respondents in the Bank Consortium Holding Limited (BCT) Public Opinion Survey on Retirement Happiness in 2017. The result shows that holding the investment portfolio with savings and risky assets is positively and significantly correlated with the individual’s confidence of happy retirement life, and this relationship is more pronounced...

May 12, 2022
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What Share of Noncovered Public Employees Will Earn Benefits that Fall Short of Social Security?
12May

What Share of Noncovered Public Employees Will Earn Benefits that Fall Short of Social Security?

By Jean-Pierre Aubry, Siyan Liu, Alicia H. Munnell, Laura Quinby & Glenn Springstead Social Security is designed to serve as the base of retirement support, to be supplemented by employer-sponsored plans. However, approximately one-quarter of state and local government employees – currently, around 5 million workers annually – are not covered by Social Security on their current job. Federal law allows these noncovered workers to remain outside of Social Security if their state or local plan provides comparable benefits. Since...

May 12, 2022
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Do Pensions Reduce Debt?
12May

Do Pensions Reduce Debt?

By Wei Chen This paper estimates the causal impact of receiving pension payments on debt behavior among older adults, with a natural experiment around China's New Rural Pension Scheme (NRPS), one of the world's largest social pension programs. Using a fuzzy difference in discontinuity research design and four waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS), I find that the introduction of the NRPS reduced debt among older adults, and increased their ability to shield themselves against shocks,...

May 12, 2022
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12May

The DC Future Book 2021: In Association With Columbia Threadneedle Investments

By Pension Police Institute & Investments Columbia Threadneedle Columbia Threadneedle Investments has supported The DC Future Book since its inaugural publication six years ago. We are pleased to see that it has become the foremost longitudinal study of the UK Defined Contribution (DC) market we envisaged it to be. This is a special edition indeed – it is the first time that the Pensions Policy Institute has been able to track DC market activity against the backdrop of a major crisis....

May 12, 2022
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05May

Assessing Heterogeneity in the Health Effects of Social Pensions Among the Poor Elderly: Evidence from Peru

By Noelia Bernal Lobato, Javier Olivera & Marc Suhrcke This paper exploits the discontinuity around a welfare index of eligibility to assess the heterogeneous health impacts of Peru's social pension program Pension 65, which focuses on elderly poor individuals. The heterogeneity is analysed in terms of the treatment exposure (short vs long run), the accessibility to health care infrastructure (near vs distant facilities), and gender. We find improvements in anaemia, mortality risk markers, cognitive functioning, mental health, and self-reported health....

May 5, 2022
Articles, Pension design, System Characterization, , , , ,
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April 2022

Wealth After Work Innovative Reforms to Expand Retirement Security
11Apr

Wealth After Work Innovative Reforms to Expand Retirement Security

By William G. Gale, J. Mark Iwry, & David C. John Pensions and retirement saving plans have helped millions of households build financial security. But tens of millions of people have been left behind, without access to these wealth accumulation vehicles. For many others, the plans they have do not ensure financial security in retirement. The problems that underlie these failures can be addressed. This book proposes concrete, practical ways to make dependable retirement income accessible for all Americans—not just those...

April 11, 2022
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