We study demand for advice within defined contribution retirement plans offered by 23 institutions where TIAA is sole recordkeeper. Advice seeking increases with age, account balance, annual contribution level, web access, and changes in marital status. More provocatively, participants who...

This paper evaluates a new variant of the popular target date funds used in employer-based retirement savings plans. We call this new variant a "target retirement plan." Instead of increasing the allocation to bond funds as retirement approaches, a target retirement fund gradually purchases...

"The NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health provides summaries of publications like this. You can sign up to receive the NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health by email. This paper examines the effect of incorporating individual-level heterogeneity into default rules for retirement plan selection. We use...