Most defined contribution (DC) pension plans give their members a degree of choice over the investment strategy for their contributions. Many plans also offer a 'default' fund for members unable or unwilling to choose their own investment strategy. We analyse the range of default funds offered...

This article uses the framework of designing a commercial aircraft to illustrate how a personal defined-contribution (DC) pension plan should be designed if it is to achieve its objective of delivering an adequate and secure retirement pension. The article's suggestions are based on similarities...

This report is the first major study of DC investment strategies used in UK defined contribution pension schemes. It is critical of 'traditional' arrangements and urges employers, trustees, and pension practitioners to consider innovative strategies for the default fund, in which the majority of...

We introduce a new modelling framework to explain socioeconomic differences in mortality in terms of an affluence index that combines information on individual wealth and income. The model is illustrated using data on older Danish males over the period 1985-2012 reported in the Statistics...

On 29 May 2014, Rachel Reeves MP, the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, launched an Independent Review of Retirement Income to look at how to boost defined contribution (DC) savers' retirement income. This review is led by Professor David Blake, Director of the Pensions Institute, with...

Basis risk is an important consideration when hedging longevity risk with instruments based on longevity indices, since the longevity experience of the hedged exposure may differ from that of the index. As a result, any decision to execute an index-based hedge requires a framework for (1)...

The European Union is dumping its goods on world markets, especially in the UK, because the euro is a structurally undervalued currency. First, the euro is an ‘incomplete' currency. Unlike every other currency, there is no single sovereign standing behind it. Each member state of the Eurozone...

So long as the UK government liberates itself from the protectionist mercantilist mindset of the European Union and reduces trade barriers after Brexit, and UK businesses respond positively to the challenge of increased international competition (through increased productivity and exports), the...

The EU claims that it wishes to negotiate the future trading relationship with the UK on the basis of a ‘level playing field'. However, the EU's published negotiating guidelines actually seek to impose on the UK a very unlevel playing field – in goods, services, capital markets and financial...