Attempts to shore up the classic single-employer, defined-benefit pension plan are the wrong response to Canada’s occupational pension problems. While tax and regulatory changes can help, Canadians need a new approach to retirement income that will pool risks, control costs, and avoid the...

Variations between the diverse pension systems in the member states of the European Union hamper labour market mobility, across country borders but also within the countries of the European Union. From a macroeconomic perspective, and in the light of demographic pressure, this paper argues that...

This paper deals with Alternative Risk Transfer (ART) through the securitization of longevity and mortality risks in pension plans and commercial life insurance. Various types of such mortality-linked securities are described (e.g., CATM bonds, longevity bonds, mortality forwards and futures,...

Financial literacy and schooling attainment have been linked to household wealth accumulation. Yet prior findings may be biased due to noisy measures of financial literacy and schooling, as well as unobserved factors such as ability, intelligence, and motivation that could enhance financial...

In Italy, the ageing of the population is leading to an increase of the pension expenditures. Before Dini reform in 1995, the earning-related contributory system was financed on a pay-as-you-go basis. It was too much generous for the economic and demographic conditions of the country, therefore...

The American pension funds system reinforces the sensibility of the American economy to financial markets fluctuations. Market risk is supported by companies as concerns defined benefits funds (DB) and by households as regards defined contributions plans (DC). DC funds are often over-invested in...

To adapt pension systems to demographic trends, many countries are reducing pay-as-you-go public pension levels and lifting retirement ages. In this context, funded pensions could play a major role to avoid adequacy gaps. Yet, as this paper shows, the coverage of funded private pensions, as...

Considering the growing role of private and funded pension provision and the sensitivity of private pension provision to the economic climate, there is an increasing need of comparable and reliable information on private pension plans in order to better monitor retirement income adequacy and the...

Low contribution levels to pension schemes in Latin America are an enormous obstacle limiting the implementation of a broad-based social security system. Contribution rates measured as a ratio of contributors to the total labour force stand at an average of 40%, or 60% in the best of cases....

Administrators of employee benefit plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended ("ERISA"), often struggle to determine who is entitled to be paid survivor benefits. Trusts and estates attorneys often struggle to determine who, if anyone, may use state law to...