Defined contribution plans, predominantly 401(k)s, are the primary source of personal retirement savings for American workers, making the investment decisions within these accounts a salient policy concern. These decisions are a result of two separate actions: the mutual fund options selected by the employer’s plan administrator and the specific funds chosen by the participant.

Avtalen om et mer inkluderende arbeidsliv (IA-avtalen) i Norge ble undertegnet i 2001. Samme år ble arbeidet med å reformere pensjonssystemet igangsatt. I denne rapporten har vi sett på hva Danmark, Sverige og Finland har gjort for å redusere tidligpensjoneringen og øke yrkesdeltakelsen blant eldre.

Defined contribution plans, predominantly 401(k)s, are the primary source of personal retirement savings for American workers, making the investment decisions within these accounts a salient policy concern. These decisions are a result of two separate actions: the mutual fund options selected by the employer’s plan administrator and the specific funds chosen by the participant.

While considerable research has examined 401(k) participant decisions in isolation, surprisingly little attention has been focused on the choices made by plan administrators. The administrator’s role is clearly influential, particularly if, as indicated by prior research, 401(k) participants themselves do not make good choices. This brief, based on a prior study, addresses this research gap by focusing on the fund choices of 401(k) plan administrators and participants’ reactions to these choices.

1. mars vil det avholdes møte i Pensjonsforum med temaet "Levealder", med bidrag fra Aslaug Foss(SSB), Dennis Fredriksen (SSB) og Sissel Rødevand (Actecan). Neste møte avholdes 15.mars med temaet "Fripoliser", med bidrag fra Pål Lillevold (Aktuar), Runa K. Sæther (Finanstilsynet), Jan Otto Risebrobakken (Storebrand) og Mikkel Berg (Silver).

Workers over age 55 with chronic health conditions must choose between applying for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits or continuing to work until their Social Security retirement benefits become available. Previous research has investigated the influence of macroeconomic conditions on disability application and, separately, on retirement claiming.

In this paper we analyze the trends in labor force participation and transitions to benefit programs of older workers in relation to health trends as well as recent Social Security reforms.

A classic defined benefit scheme delivers a real annuity at retirement, which is considered to be the optimal pension provision for individuals. The unsustainability of these schemes combined with new regulation is driving a worldwide shift towards defined contribution solutions, which do not deliver a guarantee and thus a suboptimal pension.

Banklovkommisjonens forslag til nytt tjenestepensjonsprodukt i privat sektor tilfredsstiller alle behov en arbeidsgiver måtte ha. Bedriften kan spare mye eller lite til de ansattes pensjoner. Arbeidsgiver kan videre fri seg fra en hver garanti, velte all risiko over på arbeidstakerne og dermed styre unna balanseføringen av framtidige forpliktelse. Motsatt kan arbeidsgiver garantere de ansatte lønnsregulering av pensjonskapitalen og dermed sikre et visst nivå på pensjonene. I notatet vises det bl.a. at forslagene til maksimalsatser er satt for lavt til å gi like gode pensjoner som dagens ytelsesordninger. Kommisjonens forslag på 7 pst må økes til minst 8,5 pst for å kunne sikre pensjoner på to tredeler av sluttlønn innenfor standardmodellen.

States and localities account for pensions in their financial statements according to standards laid out by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). Under these standards, state and local plans generally follow an actuarial model and discount their liabilities by the long-term yield on the assets held in the pension fund, roughly 8 percent. Most econo­mists contend that the discount rate should reflect the risk associated with the liabilities and, given that benefits are guaranteed under most state laws, the appropriate discount factor is closer to the riskless rate. The point is not that liabilities should be larger or smaller, but rather that the discount rate should reflect the nature of the liabilities; the characteristics of the assets backing the liabilities are irrelevant…

This research report is one of three projects commissioned by the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) into hybrid or risk sharing pension plans. The main objective of the research is “to increase the knowledge of risk sharing and hybrid pension plans compared to traditional final salary and pure defined contribution plans; and to promote discussion and better understanding of these within Government and the wider pensions world”.

One reason young workers don’t save for retirement is that the event is so far off. An experiment to boost their saving tested different ads: abstract or concrete wording (“why you should save more now” vs. “how you can save more now”); and a short- or long-term savings goal (“how much to save from each paycheck” vs. “how much to save over your lifetime”). The most effective ads paired abstract wording with a long-term goal and concrete wording with a short-term goal. Therefore, communications designed to spur saving by young workers should match the framing of the message to the time horizon of the savings milestone.

The motivation for this paper is the concern that financial advice – the topic of this conference – tends to focus on financial assets, applying tools that give prominence to the asset allocation decision. But most people have little financial wealth, and financial tools are often silent on the levers that will have a much larger effect on retirement security for the majority of Americans. These levers include delaying retirement, tapping housing equity through a reverse mortgage, and controlling spending. Moreover, even for many with substantial assets, these non-financial levers may be as powerful as asset allocation in attaining retirement security.