At the end of the deferment period a deferred annuity’s policyholder can choose between receiving annuity payouts or the capital accumulated. Considering stochastic mortality improvements, the lump-sum option could be of potential value for the policyholder. Whenever mortality improves less...

According to theory, institutional investors face both risk management and risk shifting incentives. This paper assesses the relevance of these conflicting incentives for Dutch pension funds and insurance firms over the period 1995-2009. Using a unique and extended dataset, we observe a...

How to design an attractive annuity for an undeveloped market and how to assess the potential demand for such a product? We first conduct a discrete choice experiment among participants of a large-scale occupational defined contribution pension scheme in Hong Kong to identify desired product...

In a calibrated consumption-portfolio model with stock, housing, and labor income predictability, we evaluate the welfare effects of predictability on life-cycle consumption-portfolio choice. We compare skilled investors who are able to take advantage of all sources of predictability with...

We study the decision problem of the optimal choice between home equity release products from a retired homeowner's perspective in the presence of longevity, long-term care, house price, and interest rate risk. The individual can choose to release home equity using reverse mortgages or home...

It is common practice for public pension schemes to offer individuals the option to delay benefit claiming until after the normal retirement age and adjust the annual benefit level as a result. This adjustment is often not actuarially neutral with respect to the age at which benefits are...

We analyze whether uncertainty related to the outcome of future policy results in precautionary saving. We focus on an important cause of policy uncertainty for households in the Netherlands: the possible limitation of the mortgage interest deduction. To isolate the effect of policy uncertainty...

The so-called retirement-savings puzzle is a phenomenon by which, contrary to what the basic life-cycle model predicts, households do not run down their wealth significantly during retirement. In this survey paper we briefly review the literature that attempts to solve the retirement-savings...

We study the role of household saving behaviour, of individual motives for saving and that of perceived liquidity constraints on household finances in 15 Euro Area countries. The empirical analysis is based on the Household Finance and Consumption Survey, a new harmonized data set collecting...

The ability of consumers to make informed financial decisions improves their ability to develop sound personal finance. This paper uses a panel dataset from Russia, an economy in which consumer loans grew at an astounding rate - from about US$10 billion in 2003 to over US$170 billion in 2008 -...