Collectively, Americans are woefully unprepared financially for retirement. This retirement problem actually reflects a collection of diverse issues. This paper identifies the most important ones: longevity; access; contributions; portability; behavioral mistakes; funded status; expenses; and...

We examine the effects of a 2012 regulatory reform that mandated fee and performance disclosures for the investment options in 401(k) plans. We show that participants became significantly more attentive to expense ratios and short-term performance after the reform. The disclosure effects are...

Given its tax-preferential treatment, careful study is warranted to determine whether life insurance can play an important role in an overall retirement portfolio. This study develops hypothetical scenarios for different types of individuals with varying ages and distribution periods, while...

We examine the effects of a 2012 regulatory reform that mandated fee and performance disclosures for the investment options in 401(k) plans. We show that participants became significantly more attentive to expense ratios and short-term performance after the reform. The disclosure effects are...

We consider the portfolio selection problem in the accumulation phase of a defined contribution (DC) pension scheme. We solve the mean-variance portfolio selection problem using the embedding technique pioneered by Zhou and Li (2000) and show that it is equivalent to a target-based optimization...

We analyze the rationale for the pay-as-you-go (paygo) pension system existence on diversi fication grounds. A continuous-time portfolio choice setting is built, basing on Merton (1971)´s analysis, where a reasonable balance between the taking account of the economic and fi nancial facets of...

This paper assesses the sophistication of pension funds' investment policies using data on 748 Dutch pension funds during the 1999-2006 period. We develop three indicators of sophistication: gross rounding of investment choices, investments in alternative sophisticated asset classes and 'home...

We analyse the investment performance of a large sample of individuals investing in discretionary retirement savings products offered by a large Australian financial institution. This is of interest from the perspective of market efficiency and the ability of individuals to over or under-perform...

This paper studies the relationship between fund and provider characteristics, and fund performance using a sample of 4,197 U.K personal pension funds operated by 35 providers over a 30 years' period (1980-2009). The fund performance is measured on an annual basis (short-term) and over the whole...

This study deals with the possible link between pension funds, venture capital and innovation to manage the challenge of aging. Institutional capacities of Hungarian second pillar is engrossed by the reallocation of it's bond and stock portfolio - therefore "exotic" investments as selected...