A commonly-accepted retirement goal for a healthy pension is for it to sustain the relatively higher standard-of-living of the latter part of one’s working life throughout retirement. A recent innovation implemented by Brazil in January 2023 might provide a solution to the pension challenges...

At a 2019 retirement security conference in Brazil, one of the authors proposed that Brazil introduce a low-cost, low-risk, simple and liquid bond innovation: “SeLFIES”—Standard of Living indexed, Forward-starting, Income-only Securities. SeLFIES would serve as the relative safe asset for...

There is an annuity puzzle in that the actual allocation by individuals to annuities is low. Longevity bonds, to hedge overall economy-wide mortality risk, have been proposed, but these bonds have challenges and the proponents have not shown how governments are hedged. This paper recommends that...

There is a growing retirement crisis and most of the focus has been on the fact that individuals are not saving enough for retirement, may not have access to pension schemes, or are financially illiterate. However, the bigger issue might be that the assets/financial products available to...

Financial illiteracy is widespread and leads to bad financial decisions (high debt, insufficient savings). Individuals cannot answer basic questions about inflation, compounding, and diversification. While financial literacy can be enhanced, are individuals teachable, and if so, what should they...

There is an annuity puzzle in that despite the welfare gains to individuals and society from consumers purchasing annuities, the actual allocation to these instruments by individuals is very low. Many explanations have been provided including adverse selection, complexity and inflexibility of...

There is a growing retirement crisis, and most of the focus has been on the fact that individuals are not saving enough for retirement, may not have access to pension schemes, and find it difficult to choose from a wide range of retirement investment products. However, the bigger issue might be...

A looming global retirement crisis threatens the three pillars of retirement due to insufficient funding, improper investment decisions and transferring risk to individuals least capable of bearing it. Many private-sector workers do not have coverage and are not saving enough for retirement....

At a 2019 retirement security conference in Brazil, one of the authors proposed that Brazil introduce a low-cost, low-risk, simple and liquid bond innovation: “SeLFIES”— Standard of Living indexed, Forward-starting, Income-only Securities. SeLFIES would serve as the relative safe asset for...

At a 2019 retirement security conference in Brazil, one of the authors proposed that Brazil introduce a low-cost, low-risk, simple and liquid bond innovation: “SeLFIES”—Standard of Living indexed, Forward-starting, Income-only Securities. SeLFIES would serve as the relative safe asset for...