February 2019

State Automatic Enrollment IRAs After the Trump Election: Are They Preempted by ERISA?

By Kathryn L. Moore (University of Kentucky College of Law) In recent years, a number of states have sought to close the retirement savings funding gap by enacting legislation mandating that employers that do not sponsor a voluntary pension plan for their employees automatically enroll their employees in a state-administered IRA program. This article focuses on the most serious legal challenge these programs face: ERISA preemption.  The article begins by providing an overview of the state automatic enrollment IRA programs....

December 2018

Informing Retirement Savings Decisions: A Field Experiment on Supplemental Plans

By Robert L. Clark (North Carolina State University - Poole College of Management), Robert G. Hammond (North Carolina State University), Melinda Sandler Morrill (North Carolina State University - Department of Economics), Christelle Khalaf (North Carolina State University) 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 an intervention that provided information on key aspects of the...

October 2018

The Chinese Pension System

By Hanming Fang (University of Pennsylvania - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)) & Jin Feng (Fudan University - School of Economics) We provide a detailed overview of the current state of the Chinese pension system, as well as its development, its problems and some ideas for future reforms. (more…)

June 2018

Public Pensions: State and Local Government Contributions to Underfunded Plans

By United States General Accounting Office (GAO)  Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the status of public pension plan funding, focusing on the basic pension plans of state and local governments. GAO found that: (1) states and localities with underfunded pension plans run the risk of reducing future pension benefits to taxpayers or raising revenues; (2) unfunded liabilities for all state and local pension plans totalled $200 billion in 1992; (3) contributions to pension funds in 1992 fell short of...

October 2017

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...

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...

September 2017

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...

August 2017

Inmigracion y Sostenibilidad del Sistema de Pensiones En España

Por Carlos Borondo, Zen N Jim Nez-Ridruejo Ayuso, Carmen Lorenzo Lago Los procesos migratorios alteran sustancialmente los vinculos existentes entre las cotizaciones y las prestaciones en los sistemas publicos de pensiones. En el caso de Espana la evolucion demografica y del mercado de trabajo se han visto profundamente modificados por la presencia de un intenso flujo de inmigrantes, que han influido de un modo manifiesto sobre el balance y la capacidad del sistema de pensiones publicas de jubilacion, mejorando las...

El Desempeño de Los Sistemas de Pensiones Privados En Latinoamérica

Por: Jos Ricardo Duarte Ojeda, Carlos Elizalde S Nchez, Mar a Teresa Casparri Los sistemas de pensiones de America Latina han vivido una oleada de reformas sin precedente en la decada de los noventa; el pionero es el caso de Chile, que en 1981 ha migrado del sistema de Reparto (PAYGO) al sistema de capitalizacion individual. Es un contrastante cambio de politica de corte neoliberal que ha privatizado las pensiones de los trabajadores, ocasionando una variedad de resultados. Este libro...