Little is known about the degree to which individuals are uncertain about their future Social Security benefits, how this varies within the U.S. population, and whether this uncertainty influences financial decisions related to retirement planning. To illuminate these issues, we present...

I solve the life-cycle portfolio allocation problem of a disappointment averse (DA) agent with labor income risk. DA preferences overweight disappointing outcomes and are consistent with behavior highlighted by the Allais paradox. I show that unlike constant relative risk aversion (CRRA)...

I solve the life-cycle portfolio allocation problem of a disappointment averse (DA) agent. DA agents overweight disappointing outcomes. Unlike expected utility investors, DA investors drastically cut their allocation to stocks around retirement due to a distinct effect associated with the drop...

Little is known about the degree to which individuals are uncertain about their future Social Security benefits, how this varies within the U.S. population, and whether this uncertainty influences financial decisions related to retirement planning. To illuminate these issues, the authors present...

We introduce and analyze a novel collective defined contribution plan (CDC) which guarantees upon retirement at least a target benefit as a lump sum. The guarantee is provided by the remaining working generations under a pre-determined linear intergenerational risk sharing (IRS) rule.Through a...

Adequately sustaining lifetime income is a critical portfolio objective for retired investors. This article provides a brief review of various retirement income modeling approaches including historical back testing, Monte Carlo simulations, and other risk modeling techniques. Implausible...

Investors are becoming more sensitive about returns and losses, especially when the investments are exposed to downside risk potential in the financial markets. Despite the computational intensity of the downside risk measures, they are very widely applied to construct a portfolio and evaluate...

In several countries the economic crisis has again confronted homeowners with the risks of their ownership. Price-increases are not self-evident. The uncertainty of the costs of home ownership has increased. We will present a stochastic model by which the costs and risks of home ownership will...

Popular press and some practitioners have warned against threats that buying risky assets pose on agents saving for retirement, children education and other uses. This paper shows that in a standard two-period general equilibrium model where some savers have no risk-sharing motives, there exists...

We investigate the determinants of a household's decision on whether to invest in risky financial assets. Financial theory suggests that with increasing labor income risk, the reluctance of households to hold stocks increases. We propose to measure income risk as the observed variation of...