February 2023

Third of UK savers unaware of their retirement options

The firm's Future of Global Retirement report - which surveyed 8,000 savers across the UK, Australia, South Africa and the US - found the UK ranked lowest when it came to understanding of savers' options at retirement. The report - published today (16 February) - discovered with the increasing cost of living, a third (34%) of respondents are concerned they would be unable to afford their day-to-day living costs in retirement. The research revealed a gender discrepancy as 38% of...

Financial literacy, longevity literacy, and retirement readiness

By Paul Yakoboski, Annamaria Lusardi & Andrea Hasler Six years of data from the TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index (P-Fin Index) clearly demonstrate that U.S. adults with greater financial literacy tend to have better financial well-being. This report shows that retirement readiness, a specific realm of financial well-being, likewise tends to be better among those with greater financial literacy. In addition, it shows that retirement readiness is also related to longevity literacy. While typically an overlooked factor, the importance of...

January 2023

A Behaviorally Informed Financial Education Program for the Financially Vulnerable: Design and Effectiveness

By Ernst-Jan de Bruijn, Gerrit Antonides & Tamara Madern Financially vulnerable consumers are often associated with suboptimal financial behaviors. Evaluated financial education programs so far show difficulties to effectively reach this target population. In our attempt to solve this problem, we built a behaviorally informed financial education program incorporating insights from both motivational and behavioral change theories. In a quasi-experimental field study among Dutch financially vulnerable people, we compared this program with both a control group and a traditional program group....

November 2022

Poor returns show why more pensions knowledge needed, says Denmark’s IPD

Danish industry association IPD said average market-rate pension savings in the Nordic country have fallen 14% so far this year, and such poor performance showed why people need more pensions knowledge. Kent Damsgaard, chief executive officer of Insurance & Pension Denmark (IPD), said: “The crisis and the poor returns in 2022 emphasise why it is so important that Danes know more about their pension schemes.” After many years of good returns, he said, people’s savings as well as their pension payouts...

September 2022

A Behaviorally Informed Financial Education Program for the Financially Vulnerable: Design and Effectiveness

By Ernst-Jan de Bruijn, Gerrit Antonides, Tamara Madern Financially vulnerable consumers are often associated with suboptimal financial behaviors. Evaluated financial education programs so far show difficulties to effectively reach this target population. In our attempt to solve this problem, we built a behaviorally informed financial education program incorporating insights from both motivational and behavioral change theories. In a quasi-experimental field study among Dutch financially vulnerable people, we compared this program with both a control group and a traditional program group....

Homeownership and the Perception of Material Security in Old Age

By Claudius Garten, Michal Myck, Monika Oczkowska Homeownership has been shown to be related to various aspects of well-being, although both the causal nature of this relationship and the possible channels behind it have been difficult to identify. We focus on one of the most often quoted mechanisms which could be responsible for the positive effects of homeownership, namely its role in providing material security in old age. Using data from 15 European countries collected in wave 2 of the...

July 2022

Three-fifths of European employees want additional pensions advice from employers

Almost three-fifths (58%) of employees across Europe showed high or very high interest in accessing professional advice on managing their pensions via their employer, according to research from Alight Solutions. The Retirement perception index, undertaken in partnership with the University of Granada, was carried out among 2,400 employees in businesses across multiple sectors in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, exploring employees’ awareness, confidence and interest in their national pension system, and their interest in additional support...

May 2022

Does Financial Education in High School Affect Retirement Savings in Adulthood?

By Melody Harvey & Carly Urban Since individuals are increasingly required to manage their own retirement portfolios, policy levers that increase retirement planning and saving have become increasingly important. We use variation in timing and presence of state-required personal finance coursework in high schools to estimate the effect of the financial education coursework on the likelihood of holding and amount in retirement accounts in adulthood (ages 25–40). Our results show no definitive increases in account ownership, non-retirement investment accounts, or...

Pensions: people on lower incomes can be confused and disadvantaged by defined contribution pensions

New research released finds defined contribution (DC) pension schemes, which do not automatically offer a secure, guaranteed income for life, can lead to poor outcomes for those on lower incomes. Since the introduction of ‘pension freedoms’ in 2015, the vast majority of consumers are opting against a guaranteed income, resulting in them facing significant threats to their retirement security. Researchers from the University of Birmingham, supported by abrdn Financial Fairness Trust, conducted in-depth interviews with DC pension consumers and gained...

April 2022

Ghana. NPRA embarks on pension education for informal sector workers

The National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) as part of its quest to improve informal pension coverage in Ghana has embarked on an outreach programme in Oti Region to create awareness of pensions. The Head of Corporate Affairs, Nana SifaTwum, told the Ghanaian Times in Accra on Wednesday, that the move is to educate and sensitise both formal and informal sector workers on pension matters. He said the outreach programme which would begin on Monday, April 4 and ends on Friday, April...