January 2019

27Jan

Putting the Pension Back in 401(k) Retirement Plans: Optimal versus Default Longevity Income Annuities

By Vanya Horneff (Goethe University Frankfurt - Research Center SAFE), Raimond Maurer (Goethe University Frankfurt - Finance Department), Olivia S. Mitchell (University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)) A recent US Treasury regulation allowed deferred longevity income annuities to be included in pension plan menus as a default payout solution, yet little research has investigated whether more people should convert some of the $15 trillion they hold in employer-based defined contribution plans into lifelong income streams. We investigate this...

January 27, 2019
Articles, Investing, Pension design, , ,
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14Jan

Investment Strategies for Retirement

By Franck NicolasThe issue of pension financing is evolving everywhere, becoming more of a corporate or individual matter rather than a state one. Demographic changes are making sharing mechanisms hard to control, and social deficits often lead governments to pull back from their obligations. This raises many questions for the individual: Read Complete Book Here

January 14, 2019
Books, Investing, ,
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December 2018

16Dec

Annuity Pricing In Public Pension Plans: Importance Of Interest Rates

By Nino Abashidze, Robert L. Clark, Beth Ritter, David Vanderweide There is little systematic information on the distribution options in public sector retirement plans and how annuity options are priced relative to the standard single life annuity. This study examines the distribution options of 85 large public retirement plans covering general state employees, teachers, and local government employees. An important component of the analysis is the construction of a data set presenting the annuity options offered by each of these plans and how the...

December 16, 2018
Articles, Investing, Pension design, Savings, ,
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October 2018

22Oct

The Pivotal Role of Fairness: Which Consumers Like Annuities?

By Suzanne B. Shu (University of California, Los Angeles - Anderson School of Management), Robert Zeithammer (University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) - Anderson School of Management), John W. Payne (Duke University - Marketing) Life annuities can be a valuable component of the decumulation stage of wealth during retirement. While economists argue that most retirees should annuitize, actual demand in the marketplace is low. We analyze data from two studies to determine how measurable individual differences among consumers affect their...

October 22, 2018
Articles, Pension design, System Sustainability, , ,
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August 2018

11Aug

Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World: Working Longer

By Courtney Coile This is the introduction and summary to the eighth phase of an ongoing project on Social Security Programs and Retirement Around the World. This project, which compares the experiences of a dozen developed countries, was launched in the mid 1990s following decades of decline in the labor force participation rate of older men. The first several phases of the project document that social security program provisions can create powerful incentives for retirement that are strongly correlated with...

August 11, 2018
Aging, Books, Labor Market, Pension design, , , ,
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08Aug

Annuity Puzzle: how products are designed matters

By Eduardo Rodríguez Montemayor PPI’s Editorial Board editorial@pensionpolicy.net Getting an annuity with our savings pot at the time of retirement is the only contract that guarantees periodic pension payments for life. Yet, few people do it when offered to option to do so. What explains this puzzle? An annuity is a financial contract that pays out a periodic amount for as long as the annuitant is alive, in exchange for an initial premium. Defined-contribution (DC) pension schemes usually make it voluntary to choose whether to buy an...

August 8, 2018
Articles, Investing, Labor Market, OP Ed, Pension design, PPI’s original Op-Eds, Slider-Left, , , ,
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03Aug

British expat retirees warned over leaving pensions in sterling

The average pension pot for UK expat overseas is around £210,000, but currency fluctuations may cause losses of 20 per cent. A recent analysis of the plunging pound’s effect on British pensions paid in sterling on behalf of UK expats living overseas gives bad news for the estimated 247,000 Brit retirees living abroad. Put bluntly, pensions held in sterling but drawn in foreign currency via ATMs or bank to bank transfers are permanently open to currency exchange fluctuation risks. In...

August 3, 2018
News, Slider, , ,
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July 2018

30Jul

The Taxation of Pensions

By Robert Holzmann & John Piggott Theoretical and policy perspectives on the taxation of pension, viewed in an international context.Policy makers and academic researchers have been preoccupied in recent decades with the design of pension schemes and effective pension system reform. Relatively little attention has been given to the taxation of pensions and, more broadly, the provision of retirement income. In this book, experts from a range of countries explore the interconnection. Their contributions are especially timely, given recent demographic...

July 30, 2018
Books, Investing, Regulation, Savings, ,
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June 2018

25Jun

Saving Preferences After Retirement

By Jennifer Alonso-García (University of New South Wales (UNSW) - ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR)), Hazel Bateman (UNSW - School of Actuarial Studies, Centre for Pensions and Superannuation), Johan Bonekamp (Tilburg University - Department of Econometrics & Operations Research), Arthur van Soest (Tilburg University) & Ralph Stevens (CPB Netherlands Bureau of Economic Policy Analysis; CEPAR) We investigate the importance of rational and psychological motives for choosing a saving and consumption trajectory after retirement. Using an online...

June 25, 2018
Articles, Savings, ,
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May 2018

27May

Insight into the Earned Income Tax Credit and Tax-Advantaged Retirement Savings

By David Rogofsky (Government of the United States of America - Office of Retirement Policy), Richard Chard (Government of the United States of America - Office of Research, Evaluation and Statistics), Joanne Yoong (Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR)) Saving for retirement has traditionally been compared to a three-legged stool supported by Social Security benefits, workplace pensions, and personal savings. As the prevalence of defined benefit pensions has diminished in recent decades, the importance of personal savings has grown....

May 27, 2018
Articles, Savings,
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