In most countries, retirement benefits from pension saving must be taken as an annuity. By contrast, Australia allows benefits to be taken as a lump sum and instead has recently introduced various tax incentives to encourage annuity purchase. This paper investigates the effectiveness of these...

A new explanation for the well-known reluctance of retirees to buy life annuities is due to Milevsky and Young (2002, 2003). Specifically, the decision to buy longevity insurance is largely irreversible, so that the real option to delay annuitization generally has value. Milevsky and Young...

The new Simplified Superannuation regulations for Australian superannuation provide tax concessions to retirement income streams which comply with legislated minimum drawdown rules. We evaluate these new drawdown rules against four alternatives, including three formula-based 'rules of thumb' and...

This research studies the propensity of individuals to violate implications of expected utility maximization in allocating retirement savings within a compulsory defined contribution retirement plan. The paper develops the implications and describes the construction and administration of a...