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 develop and simulate a stochastic lifecycle model to investigate optimal annuity purchases at retirement. Retirees can invest in risky assets, purchase fairly priced immediate or deferred lifetime annuities, and are eligible for a targeted safety net pension. We match baseline parameters to...

Heterogeneity in mortality rates is known to exist in populations, undermining the use of age and sex as the only rating factors for life insurance and annuity products. Life insurers underwrite life products using a variety of rating factors to allow for this heterogeneity. In the case of life...

In enhanced annuities, the annuity payment depends on one's state of health at some contracted date while in "standard annuities", it does not. The focus of this paper is on an annuity market where "standard" and enhanced annuities areoffered simultaneously. When all insured know equally well on...

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...

Transaction costs impose a barrier to savings, but lowering them may have smaller impacts than expected due to other constraints, such as psychological biases. Within the context of retirement savings under defined contributions in the privatized pension system in Mexico, we analyze two...

We examine the drivers of variable annuity sales and the impact of a proposed regulatory change. Variable annuities are popular retirement products with over $2 trillion in assets in the United States. Insurers typically pay brokers a commission for selling variable annuities that ranges from 0%...