The wide gulf between actual and predicted annuity demand has been well documented. However, a comparable gap exists between the current and ideal annuity market. In a world with costly and limited annuity products, we investigate what types of new annuity products could improve annuity market...

The advent of the Roth 401(k) significantly expanded opportunities for tax-preferred retirement saving, but at the same time it created much confusion for individual savers regarding whether to save in the form of pre-tax or Roth dollars. The financial community's conventional wisdom is based on...

As baby boomers enter retirement, they will look to the investment industry for ways to generate retirement income from a stock of accumulated saving. A longstanding puzzle is why most retirees do not purchase longevity insurance in the form of lifetime annuities. This question is rising in...

Contrary to economic theory, few retirees voluntarily annuitize much, if any, of their wealth. This behavior has been at least partly explained by factors such as bequest motives, a demand for liquid wealth, or a restrictive annuity investment universe, all of which impose implicit costs on...

As Baby Boomers enter retirement, they will look to the investment industry for ways to generate income from accumulated savings. Why most retirees do not purchase longevity insurance in the form of lifetime annuities is a long-standing puzzle. Mental accounting and loss aversion can explain the...

There is reason to believe that technological approaches can help promote voluntary saving in 401(k) retirement accounts. Working with Vanguard, a leading 401(k) plan administrator, we are evaluating the impact of introducing innovations to websites made available to retirement plan...