Fintech and the Retirement Savings System

By Society of Actuaries

This report provides a sampling of new financial technologies (fintech) and their applications related to retirement savings systems affecting participants, plan sponsors and service providers. This Executive Summary provides a brief overview of the contents of the report.

We first discuss issues directly relevant to pension participants and the decisions they need to make. We then
discuss issues relevant to plan sponsors and service providers. Each section also includes references about the
fintech area discussed which can be found in the References section.

The sections about participants look at how fintech can offer personalization that enhances how participants
interact with pension plans. These trends may be particularly relevant because more people are working with
computers from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and because telework will likely continue at an increased
level after the pandemic has ended. The fintech we discuss includes:

• More engaging communication with pension participants using artificial intelligence;
• Greater motivation for participants to learn about pensions using gamification;
• Some approaches to overcome obstacles to informed investment direction using robo-advisers;
• New methods for a participant to better track pensions from former employers using dashboards; and
• A novel way to spread risk in the payout phase of pensions using tontines.

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