We focus on the decumulation decision that faces an individual upon entering retirement, and seek a rational set of choices for an individual who receives a lump-sum settlement from retirement savings programs, together with accumulated private savings and Social Security credits. In the spirit...

In this survey, we review the voluminous body of literature on the measurement and the determinants of financial literacy. Wherever possible, we supplement existing findings with recent descriptive evidence of German households' financial literacy levels based on the novel Panel on Household...

The Asset Location (AL) decision determines which of the assets owned should be held in which account-type (tax-deferred, tax-exempt or taxable) in order to maximize the tax-reduction benefits of those accounts and to maximize ending wealth. This paper argues against AL practices that a) phrase...

Conventional advice is to reduce risky investments as one ages. Such a generalized focus on risk avoidance may be inappropriate for elderly with longer life spans and those with financial goals that extend beyond their lifetime. To better understand risky asset holdings among the elderly, we...

Using data from year-end 2007 through year-end 2016, this report analyzes data on traditional IRA investors drawn from The IRA Investor Database to gain insight into how traditional IRA investors fared during and after the financial crisis. After setting the scene in terms of financial...

This report analyzes data on a group of consistent Roth IRA investors — those holding accounts with the same financial services provider at the end of each year from 2007 through 2016 — drawn from The IRA Investor Database to gain insight into how Roth IRA investors fared during and after...

The paper investigates the importance of inflation-linked annuities to individuals facing inflation risk. Given the investment opportunities in nominal, real, and variable annuities, as well as cash and stocks, we investigate the consumption and investment decisions under two different objective...

Retirees who purchase an annuity may assume that retirement savings accounts are ideal for funding retirement income. Annuities, however, are a tax-favored investment. We investigate the relative benefits of purchasing an annuity from tax-deferred and taxable accounts for various payout levels,...