Description: This article presents the findings of an Urban Institute study sponsored by the Pension Section and the Actuarial Foundation examining the election of joint and survivor annuities by married adults. From Pension Section News, June 2004, Issue No. 55.

Description: This article discusses the findings of the Retirement Plan Preferences Survey which asked workers participating in defined benefit plans and defined contribution plans which retirement plans they prefer and what they understand. From Pension Section News, March 2004, Issue No. 54.

Description: A Discussion of why female mortality is higher than male mortality at higher ages.

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: The article endorses broader use of lifetime income in DC plans. It explains why the use of DB plans will continue to decline. The article points out that plans sponsors will not willingly take on additional ERISA fiduciary exposure. The article endorses three regulatory reforms that would increase the use of lifetime income in DC plans. 1. A robust annuity issuer safe harbor that would free employers from fiduciary exposure for putting an annuity provider on the DC platform. 2. A requirement that a plan offer a lifetime income option to qualify for the 404(c) safe harbor. 3. A revision to 404(c) to allow plan sponsors to allocate part or all of the employer match to lifetime income.

Description: The authors present the myriad of issues affecting an individuals retirement decision and highlight studies from Mercer and AARP. They find that Americans are increasingly creating their own personalized phased retirement programs in this evolving area of human resources management.

Description: May 2016 issue of Pension Section News