The funding ratio is a financial indicator to measure the viability of pension funds. The paper analyzes how Swiss occupational pension funds' technical discount rate and asset allocation are related to the funding ratio. The paper shows that funds with weaker funding ratios apply higher rates...

With the passage of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 and the Department of Labor regulation regarding qualified default investment alternatives, automatic enrollment and default investments featuring more equities are likely to become more popular. This analysis compares the investment...

The aim of this study is to analyze investor response to different measures of pension plan performance. To do this, we implement a fixed effects panel data methodology corrected by heteroskedasticity, serial correlation and cross-sectional dependence, as proposed by Vogelsang (2012). The...

Pension funds are increasingly relying on swaps to hedge the long-term nature of their liabilities. While the use of swaps reduces pension funds' exposure to interest rate risk, it exposes pension funds to liquidity risk because of potential margin calls. We study these effects using unique data...

Retirement outcomes would be improved if retirees had access to insurance products that linked guaranteed, inflation-adjusted income to life cycle investment portfolio strategies. Suitable retirement planning for individual, defined contribution plans must concurrently account for trade-offs...

The stock market collapse led to political tensions between generations due to the fuzzy definition of the property rights over the pension funds’ wealth. The problem is best resolved by the introduction of generational accounts. Modern consumption and portfolio theory shows that the younger...

This paper investigates the characteristics of US and Canadian pension funds that allocate assets to hedge funds. The typical pension fund that invests in hedge funds is a large sophisticated pension fund that diversifies its portfolio across numerous classes of investments, private equity in...

Default features in defined-contribution plans are designed to improve the retirement security of plan participants. To date, these have focused on the challenge of saving, ignoring the more complex challenge of dissaving. Automatic default provisions for drawing down participant account...

Defined-benefit (DB) pension funds, often underfunded, rely on the legal obligation of their sponsor to secure pension rights for individuals.Because that guarantee is risky, ways must be found to secure the pension promises. This paper is the first to identify the optimal pension fund...

Defined-benefit (DB) pension funds, often underfunded, rely on the legal obligation of their sponsor to secure pension rights for individuals. The sponsor guarantee being risky, its riskiness must be hedged to secure the pension promises. This appendix details the implementation of the extended...