Means-tested pension policies are typical for many countries and are very important to the pension system. These policies are specific for each country, and the assessment of policy changes is critical for policy makers. In this paper we consider the Australian means-tested Age Pension. The...

In this paper we develop a retirement model under the expected utility stochastic control framework to find optimal decisions with respect to the consumption, risky asset allocation, access to annuities, reverse mortgage and the option to scale housing. The model is solved numerically using...

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...

Basu and Drew (in the JPM Spring 2009 issue) argue that lifecycle asset allocation strategies are counterproductive to the retirement savings goals of typical individual investors. Because of the portfolio size effect, most portfolio growth will occur in the years just before retirement when...

Using data from year-end 2007 through year-end 2016, this report analyzes data on traditional IRA investors drawn from The IRA Investor Database to gain insight into how traditional IRA investors fared during and after the financial crisis. After setting the scene in terms of financial...

This report analyzes data on a group of consistent Roth IRA investors — those holding accounts with the same financial services provider at the end of each year from 2007 through 2016 — drawn from The IRA Investor Database to gain insight into how Roth IRA investors fared during and after...

There are many decisions that Americans have to make about retirement before, at, and after retirement. For example, Americans have to decide when to start saving for retirement, how much to save, how to invest those savings, when to retire, when to claim social security, and how to take...

In this paper, we develop an expected utility model for the retirement behavior in the decumulation phase of Australian retirees with sequential family status subject to consumption, housing, investment, bequest and government provided means-tested Age Pension. We account for mortality risk and...

This paper brings together the academic literature on individual and institutional investors in order to understand the nature of difficulties faced by them and set the background for the Special Issue. This introductory article and the papers in the Special Issue contribute to the debate on how...