September 2019

09Sep

UK. Are we away with the fairies on our pension expectations?

WOULD you like a job that pays £1.3 million a year? That is just the average expected salary among children aged eight to 15, when they get their first job, according to a new survey by Halifax. It's equal to nearly 38 times the average wage in the UK this year, proving that, unfortunately, our children are away with the fairies. They also believe that schoolteachers, firefighters and postmen are earning well over £100,000 a year. Wouldn't we all...

September 9, 2019
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04Sep

US. Is Working Longer The Solution To The Retirement Crisis?

It’s an unavoidable fact: in our broken pension system, millions of older Americans lack the means to retire with dignity. Individual workers want a full retirement and are willing to take responsibility for it. Profligate spending—drinking too many lattes—is not the reason most Americans don’t have decent pensions. It is the do-it-yourself, commercial, voluntary system that has failed Americans planning for retirement Some policy makers (typically fit as a fiddle and happily employed as academics or Senators) have...

September 4, 2019
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August 2019

09Aug

On the Optimal Combination of Annuities and Tontines

By An Chen, Manuel Rach, Thorsten Sehner Tontines, retirement products constructed in such a way that the longevity risk is shared in a pool of policyholders, have recently gained vast attention from researchers and practitioners. Typically, these products are cheaper than annuities, but do not provide stable payments to policyholders. This raises the question whether, from the policyholders' viewpoint, the advantages of annuities and tontines can be combined to form a retirement plan which is cheaper than an annuity...

August 9, 2019
Articles, Investing,
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September 2017
01Sep

Equity Solvency Capital Requirements: What Institutional Regulation Can Learn from Private Investor Regulation

By David Blitz, Winfried G. Hallerbach, Laurens Swinkels & Pim van Vliet (Robeco Asset Management) Solvency II has one standard equity solvency capital requirement for type 1 or developed market stocks (39 percent) and one for type 2 or emerging market stocks (49 percent). As such, differences in financial economic risk of stock portfolios within developed or emerging markets do not influence solvency requirements. This encourages risk-seeking behavior by insurance companies, and could sustain or even create structural mispricing in...

September 1, 2017
Articles, Corporate Governance, Investing, Regulation
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March 2017

08Mar

Using Panel Tax Data to Examine the Transition to Retirement

By Peter J. Brady & Steven Bass (Investment Company Institute); Jessica Holland & Kevin Pierce (Government of the United States of America - Internal Revenue Service) Using panel data from the Internal Revenue Service’s Statistics of Income (SOI) Division, we find that most individuals do not experience a reduction in inflation-adjusted spendable income after claiming Social Security. We also examine the composition of income after claiming and find that both Social Security benefits and non-Social Security retirement distributions typically represent...

March 8, 2017
Articles, Labor Market, Pension design, ,
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08Mar

Automatic Adjustment Mechanisms in Asian Pension Systems?

By Elif C. Arbatli, Csaba Feher, Jack Ree, Ikuo Saito & Mauricio Soto (International Monetary Fund) Automatic adjustment mechanisms (AAMs)-rules ensuring that certain characteristics of a pension system respond to demographic, macroeconomic and financial developments, in a predetermined fashion and without the need for additional intervention-have been introduced in many OECD countries to tackle public pension schemes' deteriorating financial sustainability. Incorporating AAMs-in particular linking retirement age to life expectancy-can be an important part of pension reforms in Asia. If implemented...

March 8, 2017
Articles, Pension design, Regulation, System Sustainability, ,
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08Mar

Financial Inclusion and Consumer Protection in Peru

As part of its Global Policy Initiative, CGAP partnered with the Superintendence of Banks, Insurance and AFPs of Peru in late 2008, with the purpose of enhancing the understanding of the issues and trends in consumer relations when financial services are delivered through branchless banking, particularly through agents, which are used in ever increasing scale in Peru. The product was this joint report. The Superintendence and CGAP coordinated closely on data and information gathering, as well as on writing this...

March 8, 2017
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January 2017

12Jan

IDA at 65: Heading Toward Retirement or a Fragile Lease on Life? – Working Paper 246

By Todd Moss and Benjamin Leo - As the concessionary lending window of the World Bank, the International Development Association (IDA) has provided grants and low-interest loans to the world's poorest countries for over 50 years. IDA funds projects that address many of the problems associated with slower growth in developing countries related to primary education, basic health services, clean water supply and sanitation, environmental safeguards, business-climate improvements, infrastructure, and institutional reforms. However, looking to the future, IDA's operations will likely be substantially...

January 12, 2017
Corporate Governance, Labor Market, News
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