Our study contributes to the financial literacy literature by examining its association with retirement planning in an interesting and novel context, i.e. that of a country with a relatively old and rapidly ageing population, large regional disparities and a rapidly emerging financial market....

We consider the portfolio selection problem in the accumulation phase of a defined contribution pension scheme in continuous time, and compare the mean-variance and the expected utility maximization approaches. Using the embedding technique pioneered by Zhou and Li (2000) we first find the...

We propose a model for pricing a unit-linked life insurance policy embedding a surrender option. We consider both single and annual premium contracts. First we analyse a quite general contract, for which we obtain a backward recursive valuation formula based on the Cox, Ross and Rubinstein...

We consider a stochastic model for a defined-contribution pension fund in continuous time. In particular, we focus on the portfolio problem of a fund manager who wants to maximize the expected utility of his terminal wealth in a complete financial market with stochastic interest rate. The fund...

Annuities are a vital aspect of a growing number of reformed pension systems around the world, and will be of increasing relevance in Europe as reform of generous social security schemes gathers pace. This paper addresses the regulation of annuities, essential to ensure integrity of the system,...

Using a unique large-scale event, the year 2000 launch of a privatized social security system involving individual savings accounts in Sweden, I report empirical evidence on the link between fund advertising and people’s fund and portfolio choices. First, content analysis reveals that a very...

Some researchers have raised concerns about significant volatility in initial payments from fixed immediate life annuities and the subsequent inflation risk during the retirement period. This paper investigates these concerns using recent high frequency data. It finds that while there is...