September 2017

22Sep

Using Behavioral Science to Increase Retirement Savings

By Andrew Fertig, Jaclyn Lefkowitz & Alissa Fishbane We all deserve a dignified retirement, yet for many of us saving enough remains an obscure, unrealized goal. In an ideal world, planning for our retirement would begin with our first job, continue throughout our working years, and end in sufficient savings for a comfortable future. This pathway may be possible for the few among us with employer-provided pensions, where someone else handles all the planning and saving. Yet trends in the retirement...

September 22, 2017
Articles, Investing, Savings, Slider-Left, System Sustainability, , , , , ,
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15Sep

Nudging Retirement Savings: A Field Experiment on Supplemental Plans

By Robert L. Clark, Robert G. Hammond, Melinda Sandler Morrill, Christelle Khalaf 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 a field experiment that distributed an informational nudge containing information on key aspects of the employer-provided supplemental saving plans of older public employees in North Carolina. Among workers participating in a supplemental plan, individuals who...

September 15, 2017
Articles, Investing, Labor Market, Pension design, Slider-Left
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08Sep

Financial Literacy and Inclusive Growth: Challenges and Opportunities

By Dinesha P. T. Sr. (University of Mysore) In India, financial literacy could now be only for the disadvantaged needy / underprivileged / poor but this is a continuous process where all citizens of the country should be periodically educated, which would become a certain tool to pave for the economic growth and the strength of the country. Recently our Prime Minister has announced series of ambitious social security schemes, relating to the pension and insurance sector and intended at...

September 8, 2017
Adequacy, Articles, Labor Market, Slider-Left, ,
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01Sep

Debt and Financial Vulnerability on the Verge of Retirement

By Annamaria Lusardi, Olivia S. Mitchell & Noemi Oggero We analyze older individuals’ debt and financial vulnerability using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the National Financial Capability Study (NFCS). Specifically, in the HRS we examine three different cohorts (individuals age 56–61) in 1992, 2004, and 2010 to evaluate cross-cohort changes in debt over time. We also use two waves of the NFCS (2012 and 2015) to gain additional insights into debt management and older individuals’ capacity...

September 1, 2017
Aging, Articles, Labor Market, Savings, Slider-Left, , ,
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August 2017

27Aug

The State of Public Pension Funding: Are Government Employee Plans Back on Track?

By Andrew G. Biggs (American Enterprise Institute) The public-sector pension industry is claiming a comeback from losses suffered during the Great Recession. But this recovery is greatly exaggerated: even years past the end of the recession, most pension sponsors are unable to their full annual contributions, and pensions are taking as much investment risk as ever. The first step to effective pension reforms is an honest, accurate view of the costs and risks that public plans impose on government budgets...

August 27, 2017
Articles, Funding, Management, Savings, Slider-Left,
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20Aug

Ethical, Environmental, Social and Governance-Oriented Investments

By Julia M. Puaschunder (Harvard) In the aftermath of the 2008/9 World Great Recession, ethical investing blossomed as opportunity to imbue trust in the economy. The crisis aftermath offered invaluable opportunities to redefine social investment to strengthen a more sustained, inclusive and equitable society. The 2015 incepted Sustainable Development Goals spearheaded the idea of financing societal advancement. Ethical, Environmental, Social and Governance-oriented Investments are key to sustainable prosperity. In the wake of stakeholder activism and based on intrinsic socio-psychological motives,...

August 20, 2017
Articles, Investing, Management, Slider-Left, ,
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13Aug

An Evaluation of the Electronic Pension Payment System in Tajikistan

By Ruben Barreto & Natalie Chun (Asian Development Bank) Modernizing government-to-person (G2P) pension payments from traditional cash-based to modern electronic-based delivery systems can improve outcomes for pensioners, government entities, and financial services providers. Cash operations, though convenient in some circumstances, involve manual handling procedures in the distribution process that entail large overhead expenses and significant operational risks. These are highly susceptible to fraud and leakages due to difficulties in appropriately reconciling payments. However, experience has shown that implementing electronic-based G2P payments...

August 13, 2017
Articles, Management, Pension design, Slider-Left, , ,
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08Aug

A Lost Generation but Renewed Hope: Oregon’s Pension Crisis and the Road to Reform

By Scott Andrew Shepard (Independent) Like a number of other states, Oregon has been hampered in its pension reform efforts since 1996 by its state supreme court’s embrace of the “California Rule,” a doctrine arising, in Oregon’s case, from a misunderstanding of federal Contract Clause precedent. Under the misreading, states such as Oregon have been restricted from reducing pension benefits for government employees once they have been hired, even for work that lies in the future and may not be...

August 8, 2017
Articles, Regulation, Slider-Left, Supervision, System Sustainability,
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08Aug

A Lost Generation but Renewed Hope: Oregon's Pension Crisis and the Road to Reform

By Scott Andrew Shepard (Independent) Like a number of other states, Oregon has been hampered in its pension reform efforts since 1996 by its state supreme court’s embrace of the “California Rule,” a doctrine arising, in Oregon’s case, from a misunderstanding of federal Contract Clause precedent. Under the misreading, states such as Oregon have been restricted from reducing pension benefits for government employees once they have been hired, even for work that lies in the future and may not be...

August 8, 2017
Articles, Regulation, Slider-Left, Supervision, System Sustainability,
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06Aug

The Role of Self-Control on Retirement Preparedness of US Households

By Kyoung Tae Kim (University of Alabama), Jae Min Lee (Minnesota State University) & Eunice O. Hong (Sungshin Women's University) We examine the self-control problems of U.S households and their effects on households’ retirement preparedness based on the Behavioral Life-Cycle Hypothesis. Using the 2010 Survey of Consumer Finances dataset, the level of retirement adequacy was estimated with income replacement ratio (IRR), and only 42% of households were adequately prepared for retirement. Results from logistic regression analysis indicated that households with...

August 6, 2017
Aging, Articles, Pension design, Savings, Slider-Left,
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