September 2022
02Sep

A Behaviorally Informed Financial Education Program for the Financially Vulnerable: Design and Effectiveness

By Ernst-Jan de Bruijn, Gerrit Antonides, Tamara Madern Financially vulnerable consumers are often associated with suboptimal financial behaviors. Evaluated financial education programs so far show difficulties to effectively reach this target population. In our attempt to solve this problem, we built a behaviorally informed financial education program incorporating insights from both motivational and behavioral change theories. In a quasi-experimental field study among Dutch financially vulnerable people, we compared this program with both a control group and a traditional program group....

September 2, 2022
Articles, System Sustainability, , ,
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02Sep

Homeownership and the Perception of Material Security in Old Age

By Claudius Garten, Michal Myck, Monika Oczkowska Homeownership has been shown to be related to various aspects of well-being, although both the causal nature of this relationship and the possible channels behind it have been difficult to identify. We focus on one of the most often quoted mechanisms which could be responsible for the positive effects of homeownership, namely its role in providing material security in old age. Using data from 15 European countries collected in wave 2 of the...

September 2, 2022
Aging, Articles, , ,
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July 2022
12Jul

Three-fifths of European employees want additional pensions advice from employers

Almost three-fifths (58%) of employees across Europe showed high or very high interest in accessing professional advice on managing their pensions via their employer, according to research from Alight Solutions. The Retirement perception index, undertaken in partnership with the University of Granada, was carried out among 2,400 employees in businesses across multiple sectors in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, exploring employees’ awareness, confidence and interest in their national pension system, and their interest in additional support...

July 12, 2022
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May 2022
26May

Does Financial Education in High School Affect Retirement Savings in Adulthood?

By Melody Harvey & Carly Urban Since individuals are increasingly required to manage their own retirement portfolios, policy levers that increase retirement planning and saving have become increasingly important. We use variation in timing and presence of state-required personal finance coursework in high schools to estimate the effect of the financial education coursework on the likelihood of holding and amount in retirement accounts in adulthood (ages 25–40). Our results show no definitive increases in account ownership, non-retirement investment accounts, or...

May 26, 2022
Articles, Savings, , ,
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12May

Pensions: people on lower incomes can be confused and disadvantaged by defined contribution pensions

New research released finds defined contribution (DC) pension schemes, which do not automatically offer a secure, guaranteed income for life, can lead to poor outcomes for those on lower incomes. Since the introduction of ‘pension freedoms’ in 2015, the vast majority of consumers are opting against a guaranteed income, resulting in them facing significant threats to their retirement security. Researchers from the University of Birmingham, supported by abrdn Financial Fairness Trust, conducted in-depth interviews with DC pension consumers and gained...

May 12, 2022
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April 2022
04Apr

Ghana. NPRA embarks on pension education for informal sector workers

The National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) as part of its quest to improve informal pension coverage in Ghana has embarked on an outreach programme in Oti Region to create awareness of pensions. The Head of Corporate Affairs, Nana SifaTwum, told the Ghanaian Times in Accra on Wednesday, that the move is to educate and sensitise both formal and informal sector workers on pension matters. He said the outreach programme which would begin on Monday, April 4 and ends on Friday, April...

April 4, 2022
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October 2021
21Oct

Ghana. NPRA to target informal sector as it holds Pensions Week in Western Region

Mr Stanley Ogoe, Western Regional Director of the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) has hinted that the Authority is taking steps to enlighten the informal sector workers on the benefits of having a retirement plan and becoming members of pension schemes to enable them to start their retirement plans early. He noted that workers in the informal sector so far, have shown the least interest in the 3-tier pension scheme and for that matter the NPRA was therefore encouraging workers...

October 21, 2021
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07Oct

Temporal Reframing of Recurring Savings Reduces Perceived Pain and Helps Those with Lower Financial Literacy to Save

By Stephen Shu Steve Thomas & David A. Smith While assessments of the Gig Economy vary in terms of size, growth, and heterogeneity, most studies suggest that this segment of the economy is sizeable, growing, and diverse in terms of types of work. Some concerns in the literature include both the present and future welfare of workers in the Gig Economy. More granular, temporal reframing of savings (e.g., save $5 a day versus $150 a month) has been shown to...

October 7, 2021
Articles, Pension design, Savings, , ,
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August 2021
04Aug

How can the retirement system help more people afford retirement?

You don’t have to be a mechanic to drive a car, and you shouldn’t have to be a financial expert to prepare for a secure and adequate retirement. In a nutshell, that’s the theme of a new book we edited and contributed to, Wealth after work: Innovative reforms to enhance retirement security. We propose a variety of ways to make the current retirement system work better for the majority of American workers. A better-working retirement system should provide broader and more...

August 4, 2021
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June 2021
17Jun

Financial Literacy, Naive Diversification, and Security Selection

By Thomas A. Hanson, Jenna Kalthoff Low levels of financial literacy have been linked to costly errors in investing behavior. This paper examines the relationship between financial literacy and the two financial tasks of asset allocation and security selection in an online survey of college students. Results suggest that financial literacy can slightly attenuate the naïve diversification bias and improve security selection decisions. The results support educational efforts to increase financial literacy to improve retirement savings and financial decisions. Source: SSRN 226...

June 17, 2021
Articles, Investment,
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