Description: Introduction to the January 2017 issue of The Pension Forum.

Description: Technological innovations are disrupting traditional business models, improving products, and enhancing the user experience.

Description: Protecting oneself in older age from risks is the sine qua non of retirement planning. But far too many people don’t approach retirement (or retirement planning) well. From a policy perspective, we know about half the senior population will have some sort of long-term care event. We need to recognize that long-term care risk is a component not just of aging but of retirement. Placing long term care solutions in the retirement space is critical to reaching the bulk of the population. Combined with the additional element—recognition of risk—this would be both a powerful protection but also a natural one for individuals to understand.

Description: This article looks at the risk of investing in stocks by using traditional actuarial tools, such as measuring the probability of ruin. From Pension Section News, September 2004, Issue No. 56.

Description: Comments on Robert North’s paper, a real case study of disclosing MVL in a public employee retirement system.

Description: This article discusses the need for a better strategy for defined benefit pension plans. While pension costs per se can be considered independently of investment strategy, the volatility of costs cannot. Many defined benefit plan sponsors are acutely aware of this volatility and are freezing or terminating their defined benefit pension plans. From Pension Section News, September 2006, No. 62.

Description: Current DC plans do an extremely poor job at managing investment and longevity risk for plan participants. This leads to suboptimal outcomes: retirement income is potentially too low, assets are subject to catastrophic losses and may even run out. Insurance solutions—most notably annuities—address some of these issues, but are expensive and not very much liked by consumers. This paper explores how Enhanced Risk Sharing Savings Accounts (“ERiSSA”), consisting of a combination of individual DC accounts with a collective risk sharing and return redistribution mechanism coupled with deferred annuities, might be able to strike a better overall balance for consumers.

Description: A response to the comments on the paper.

Description: This essay talks about gender differences that affect retirement security and reviews lessons from SOA research. It provides advice for women including traps to avoid. Issues consider include differences in life spans, widowhood, divorce, differences in care patterns and caregiving.