January 2021

29Jan

CalPERS 2019-20 Annual Performance Report

By CalPERS The 2019-20 CalPERS Annual Performance Report provides a snapshot of our performance during the fiscal year and how we monitor our progress towards achieving our strategic goals and operational outcomes.* This report demonstrates our pledge to operate in an open and transparent manner. Our employees, members and stakeholders can see where we’re successful and where additional support may be needed. The pandemic hit the global economy very hard, but we’ve been preparing for...

January 29, 2021
Books, Pension Management, ,
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21Jan

Global Payments: And the Fintech Innovations Changing the Industry

By Carol Coye Benson Glenbrook’s “Global Payments” provides the go-to-answers to the big questions about global payments. In clear and lively writing, the author explains the common model behind national payments systems all over the world, what actually happens in a cross-border payment, and how fintech innovators are changing the industry. The book describes payments innovations in the rails, in the products and services, and new out-of-the-box alternatives. It explores real-time retail payments (aka Faster Payments) and how these...

January 21, 2021
Books, Innovation, Operation, , , ,
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21Jan

Executive Compensation: The Trend Toward One Size Fits All

By Felipe Cabezon This paper reports the prevalence of a “one-size-fits-all” trend in the structure of executive compensation plans. The way firms distribute total compensation across different components of pay –salary, bonus, stock awards, option awards, non-equity incentives, pensions, and perquisites– is becoming more similar since 2006. In particular, 25% of the variation across firms disappeared in the last ten years. Using close votes surrounding Say-on-Pay’s implementation, I find that shareholders’ influence on management decisions causes part of this...

January 21, 2021
Articles, Labor Market, ,
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21Jan

The Benefit of Diversified Guaranteed Income for Retirees: Combining Immediate Fixed and Immediate Variable Annuities

By David Blanchett This paper explores the potential benefits of developing a retirement income that considers both immediate fixed annuities (IFA) and immediate variable annuities (IVA) using a stochastic utility model combined with a scenario framework. Optimal annuity allocations vary considerably across household type, but certainty equivalent retirement income increases by 20 percent, on average, when incorporating annuities. Total annuity allocations increase when both IFAs and IVAs are considered, and retirees realize only approximately two-thirds of the benefits of...

January 21, 2021
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21Jan

Olivia S. Mitchell, PhD: Calibrating Retirement Planning with Current Conditions

By Olivia S. Mitchell In September 2020, Robert Powell, editor-in-chief of the Retirement Management Journal, Jason Fichtner, PhD, senior lecturer at the Johns Hopkins University; and Anna Rappaport, FSA, MAAA, chair of the Society of Actuaries Committee on Post-Retirement Needs and Risks, spoke with Mitchell about how longer lifespans and prolonged retirement periods are requiring adjustments to Social Security benefits, employee pension plans, and individual retirement savings. Source: SSRN

January 21, 2021
Adequacy, Aging, Articles, Pension design, , ,
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Investing in People : Social Protection for Indonesia’s 2045 Vision

By Holmemo, Camilla Acosta, Pablo, George, Tina Palacios, Robert J. Pinxten, Juul Sen, Shonali, Tiwari, Sailesh The Government of Indonesia's Vision for 2045 sets an ambitious path that will require significant investments in human capital and social protection Indonesia continues to set ambitious goals for its growth and development. The Government of Indonesia's (GoI) vision for 2045—when the country celebrates 100 years of independence—is to achieve high income status and reduce poverty to nearly zero. In addition to sustained...

January 14, 2021
Books, System Sustainability, ,
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14Jan

Maximizing Utility of Withdrawals in Retirement and the Efficiency of Required Minimum Distributions

By Chester Chambers We focus on a simplified problem for a risk-averse retiree seeking to maximize utility associated with annual spending and a remaining value at the end of the problem horizon when the funds are extracted from a portfolio that includes a risk-free and a risky asset. To organize discussions about this setting we utilize a novel metric which we label “Efficiency”. This measurement compares the utility derived from annual withdrawals and the final value with a benchmark...

January 14, 2021
Articles, Pension Management, Savings, , ,
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08Jan

The Demand for Simple and Flexible Retirement Products

By Pim Koopmans, Marike Knoef, Max van Lent Many people save too little for retirement. This paper studies – using a stated choice experiment – whether simplicity and flexibility can increase the demand for retirement products. We compare the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for self-employed workers and employees, and find that the self-employed are willing to give up 8% of post-retirement benefit in order to avoid having to provide information about their financial situation. In addition, self-employed workers are willing to...

January 8, 2021
Articles, Pension design, Savings, ,
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December 2020

31Dec

UK. Time for ‘auto-enrolment 2.0’?

The principle of automatic enrolment could be used by the government to support other savings goals next year, Scottish Widows has said. According to Pete Glancy, head of pension policy at Scottish Widows, the shaping of an ‘auto-enrolment 2.0’ could be a real possibility in 2021 as the government looks to encourage more people to save following the Covid crisis. Mr Glancy said: “Momentum behind increasing the financial resilience of UK households will continue, fuelled by the Covid-19 experience....

December 31, 2020
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31Dec

China orders Alibaba founder Jack Ma to pare down fintech empire

By Rupert Neate China has escalated its campaign to rein in the vast tech empire controlled by Jack Ma, the co-founder of Alibaba and one of the country’s richest people. Authorities in Beijing, who had on Christmas Eve ordered an investigation into allegations of “monopolistic practices” by Ma’s online retail giant, have now ordered his financial technology company Ant Group to scale back its operations. Pan Gongsheng, a deputy governor of China’s central bank, said Ant’s corporate governance was “not...

December 31, 2020
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