The use of target-date funds (TDFs) in 401(k) plans has increased rapidly in recent years. The percentage of all 401(k) plan participants using TDFs increased from 25 percent in 2007 to 31 percent in 2008. One of the reasons for this growth is that TDFs have been a popular choice for the default...

This paper considers the impact that plan design might have on annuitization rates across different plans. The key finding of this study is that differences in DB plan rules or features result in very different annuitization rates in DB plans. In fact, the results show that the rate of...

This paper analyzes a tentative defined contribution plan, and compares it to the extant defined benefit plan. The analysis uses a general framework with different employee service assumptions and random investment returns to generate distributions for defined contribution plan accumulations and...

The purpose of this paper is to discuss a few issues related to how best to communicate uncertainty about projections of future pension benefits to members of DC plans, and especially to present a pension risk simulator developed by the Chilean regulator (Superintendencia de Pensiones, SP) that...

We consider the problem of finding the optimal annuitization time in the decumulation phase of a defined contribution pension scheme, exploiting the model of Gerrard, Højgaard and Vigna (2010). We make extensive numerical investigations on the optimal annuitization time, size of final annuity...

This paper examines the allocation of market risk in a general class of collective pension arrangements: Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) schemes. In a CDC scheme participants collectively share funding risk through benefit level adjustments. There is a concern that, if not well designed,...