November 2024
15Nov

Pension’s Resource-Time Trade-Off: The Role of Inequalities in the Design of Retirement Schemes

By Renaud Bourlès & Santiago Lopez-Cantor Public pension schemes serve as mechanisms for inter-temporal income smoothing and within-cohort redistribution. This paper examines the influence of income and lifespan inequalities on the structure of a democratically chosen pension scheme. We use a probabilistic voting model where agents vote on the size and the degree of redistribution (i.e. the Beveridgean factor) of pension and can supplement it with voluntary contributions. Our analysis reveals that when all agents can supplement the public scheme...

November 15, 2024
Articles, Pension design, , ,
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15Nov

Lessons on strengthening pensions and social insurance for sustainable development

By Gustavo Demarco, Gonzalo Reyes, Diego Wachs & Aaron Buchsbaum In today's rapidly evolving world, robust pension systems and social insurance programs are vital for ensuring economic stability, financial inclusion, and the well-being of citizens, particularly in the face of aging populations. Understanding the multifaceted benefits of these systems, as well as the challenges in implementing sustainable pension systems, is crucial for informed policymaking. The World Bank is responding by revitalizing its in-depth training courses for government officials. In a recent course, experts...

November 15, 2024
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05Nov

CPF unveils new fund to support Kenya’s unpensionable workers

CPF Financial Services has introduced the Taifa Pension Fund, a new pension scheme targeting Kenya’s unpensionable workforce across both private and public sectors. The fund, managed by Standard Investment Bank, provides flexible retirement solutions for those without traditional pension access, such as informal sector workers. Taifa Pension Fund offers a range of benefits including high returns, global market exposure, and diversified investment opportunities. It serves as an umbrella fund, allowing participating employers to pool resources, thus reducing the overall cost per member...

November 5, 2024
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October 2024
28Oct

Will the Pensions Review herald long overdue integrated policy making?

The new government has laudable ambitions, but will it do more than simply “firefighting”? Pensions are a priority, judging by its speed in launching ‘a landmark’ review to boost investment, increase pension pots and tackle waste. Led by the first ever joint Treasury and DWP pensions minister Emma Reynolds, it is initially investigating scale, consolidation, the role of the single employer trust, master trusts and GPPs with their different governance structures of trustees and IGCs. The call for evidence for this, the first...

October 28, 2024
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11Oct

Rules of Thumb and Retirement Accounts

By Vanya Horneff, David A. Love & Raimond Maurer We examine the welfare costs of applying common rules of thumb for saving, investment, 401k contributions, and withdrawals in an environment that includes a realistic treatment of taxation, Social Security benefits, 401k-plan details, and uncertainty in income, longevity, and asset returns. We test the performance of commonly recommended rules, such as investing 100-minus-age percent of assets in stocks, contributing 6–10% of income to a 401k account, or withdrawing the required minimum...

October 11, 2024
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11Oct

Beyond the Status Quo: A Critical Assessment of Lifecycle Investment Advice

By Aizhan Anarkulova, Scott Cederburg & Michael S. O'Doherty We challenge two central tenets of lifecycle investing: (i) investors should diversify across stocks and bonds and (ii) the young should hold more stocks than the old. An even mix of 50% domestic stocks and 50% international stocks held throughout one’s lifetime vastly outperforms age-based, stock-bond strategies in building wealth, supporting retirement consumption, preserving capital, and generating bequests. These findings are based on a lifecycle model that features dynamic processes for...

October 11, 2024
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11Oct

Patterns of Consumption and Savings around Retirement

By Arna Olafsson & Michaela Pagel This chapter analyzes how consumption, savings, and other positions on household balance sheets change around retirement. Four patterns stand out. First, many households have barely any savings and hold substantial amounts of consumer debt at the time of retirement. Second, consumption falls at retirement, possibly due to work-related expenses, bargain shopping, or because households face unexpected adverse shocks. Third, liquid savings increase at retirement. Fourth, wealth increases more over the course of retirement for...

October 11, 2024
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11Oct

Five insights on pension reforms for the 21st century

Globally, the number of people aged 65 or older is increasing as a share of the population, which raises the question: will these older adults receive a predictable and adequate pensions? That question is one that has enormous consequences for old-age poverty, labor markets, gender equity, and the macro economies of emerging market economies, which need to rapidly rethink pension needs and solvency as more people are living longer. Designing pension reform in developing countries Sharing lessons learned is vital for...

October 11, 2024
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11Oct

India launches pension system for all ages, infancy to 70

NPS Vatsalya allows accounts to be opened for children. India’s recent launch of the National Pension System (NPS) Vatsalya aims to expand pension coverage to a broader demographic, allowing individuals from infancy to 70 years old to participate. With its flexibility and portability, NPS Vatsalya allows accounts opened for children to be seamlessly integrated into workplace pensions as they enter the workforce. The flexibility of the NPS remains a key feature, with subscribers having control over their contributions, pension fund choices, and...

October 11, 2024
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08Oct

Australia. Pension exit improvements proposed

A government proposal to allow SMSF members to exit legacy pensions could be improved through the removal of the five-year timeframe, allowing partial commutations and exempting all reserve allocations from any form of contribution caps, the Institute of Financial Professionals Australia (IFPA) has stated. In its submission to Treasury regarding the draft regulations released in mid-September, IFPA welcomed the proposed changes, but added minor amendments to the regulations would ensure they were more effective and flexible in allowing people to exit...

October 8, 2024
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