This article provides an overview of the literature on best practices for retirement savings plan design and financial education in the workplace. Without a successful plan design, financial education will not be effective and even a well-structured plan can fail to achieve retirement savings...

Using administrative data from twelve companies that added a Roth 401(k) option between 2006 and 2010, we describe the characteristics of Roth contributions. Approximately one year after the Roth is introduced, 9% of 401(k) participants have positive Roth balances. Roth participation is more...

Baby boomers are now retiring in large numbers, and most do not have enough assets of their own to finance retirement. Social insurance programs help baby boomers afford retirement, but these programs are substantially underfunded. Reforming these institutions earlier will produce fewer...

Managers in the fundraising and public sectors face the constant challenge of soliciting donations from a population who may or may not have donated before. Rather than merely asking respondents what they wish to donate, it is standard practice to present a set of suggested amounts – the...

The conventional wisdom dating back to Yaari (1965) is that households without a bequest motive should fully annuitize their investments. Numerous market frictions do not break this sharp result. We modify the Yaari framework by allowing a household's mortality risk itself to be stochastic....

This paper discusses three alternative assumptions concerning household preferences (altruism, self-interest, and a desire for dynasty building) and shows that these assumptions have very different implications for bequest motives and bequest division. After reviewing some of the literature on...

Including a matching contribution increases savings plan participation and contributions, although the impact is less significant than the impact of nonfinancial approaches. Conditional on participation, a higher match rate has only a small effect on savings plan contributions. In contrast, the...

By making simultaneous use of macro-economic data (from the national financial accounts) and micro-economic statistics (from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) and the Central Individual Credit Register), this article takes a closer look at the evolution and distribution of...

Private pension provision faces the challenging task of providing stable income streams during retirement. The challenge has increased markedly in the last decades due to volatile financial markets, falling interest rates and the withdrawal of employers and external insurers as risk bearers of...

Theoretical studies suggest that unexpected changes in future survival probabilities, that is, longevity risk, are important determinants of individuals' decision making about consumption, saving, allocation of assets, and retirement timing. Based on a data set that matches subjective survival...