Many college and university 403(b) plans restrict the menu of investment choices to funds offered by TIAA-CREF, the current manager of over half of all 403(b) contributions. Further, in the face of Internal Revenue Code changes that will take effect in 2006 and will make 403(b) plan ERISA...

We investigate risk presentations in retirement savings decisions using a discrete choice experiment where subjects choose between a bank account, a growth account and a 50:50 account. Using nine standard formats for investment risk, we analyze responses to risk per se and to format changes....

We conducted a choice experiment to investigate whether retirement savers follow simple portfolio theory when choosing investments. We modeled experimental survey data on 693 participants using a scale-adjusted version of the latent class choice model. Results show that underlying variability in...

Since its introduction, the Lee Carter model has been widely adopted as a means of modelling the distribution of projected mortality rates. Increasingly attention is being placed on alternative models and, importantly in the financial and actuarial literature, on models suited to risk management...

This paper examines the retirement savings investment choices of Australian workers over a three year period, including the global financial crisis (GFC). The analysis is based on a large sample of 3.6 million members drawn from five superannuation funds with assets of $74 billion. Australian...

In choosing a glide path strategy for asset allocation over their working lives, retirement savers face a tradeoff between the higher expected wealth provided by strategies that maintain or increase equity holdings over time, against the greater potential security offered from shifting into more...

A line of recent studies cast doubt on the efficacy of the lifecycle investment strategy, which calls for switching into a more conservative investment portfolio as retirement approaches, as a suitable way to provide for the retirement needs of workers with defined-contribution pensions. After...

Collectively organized pension plans must increasingly demonstrate that the risk preferences of their members are adequately reflected in the plans' asset allocations. However, whether funds should elicit individual members' risk preferences to achieve this goal, or whether they can rely on...