Pension systems are under serious pressure worldwide. This pressure stems not only from the well-known trend of population ageing, but also from those of increasing heterogeneity of the population and increasing labour mobility. The current economic crisis has aggravated these problems, thereby exposing the vulnerability of many pension schemes to macroeconomic shocks. This book reconsiders the multi-pillar pension scheme against the background of these pressures. It adopts an integral perspective and asks how the pension system as a whole contributes to the three basic functions of pension schemes: facilitating life-cycle financial planning, insuring idiosyncratic risks and sharing macroeconomic risks across generations. It focuses on the optimal balance between the various pension pillars and on the optimal design of each of the schemes. It sketches a number of economic trade-offs, showing that countries may opt for different pension schemes depending on how they react to these trade-offs.

Regulatory and market developments have transformed the way in which UK private sector pension schemes operate. This has increased demands on trustees and advisors and the trusteeship governance model must evolve in order to remain fit for purpose. This volume brings together leading practitioners to provide an overview of what today constitutes good governance for pension schemes, from both a legal and a practical perspective. It provides the reader with an appreciation of the distinctive characteristics of UK occupational pension schemes, how they sit within the capital markets and their social and fiduciary responsibilities. Providing a holistic analysis of pension risk, both from the trustee and the corporate perspective, the essays cover the crucial role of the employer covenant, financing and investment risk, developments in longevity risk hedging and insurance de-risking, and best practice scheme administration.

The traditional (final or average salary) pension that employers have provided their employees has suffered a huge decline in labor force coverage in the United Kingdom and the United States, and less severe declines in Canada and elsewhere. The traditional pension provides a precious measure of retirement security by paying retirees an annuity for life. This study compares developments in the countries just named and in Australia, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland to explain the forces behind the decline of the traditional pension and to contrast the experience of public sector employer-provided plans, where it remains dominant. Given the great value of the longevity insurance that the traditional plan provides, and the risks its diminished coverage entails, the book proposes a set of measures that either stem the decline or endow defined contribution pensions with some of the attributes of the traditional plan.

This book provides a secure grounding in the theory and practice of finance insofar as it deals with pension matters. By using it, the reader will understand the various types of investment assets;
* the allocation of personal wealth to different asset classes
* corporate pension finance
* the financial aspects of defined contribution pension plans during both the accumulation and distribution phases
* the financial aspects of defined benefit pension plans
* the role of pension funds and pension fund management
* pension fund performance measurement and attribution
* risk management in pension funds

This 2006 book introduces and develops the basic actuarial models and underlying pricing of life-contingent pension annuities and life insurance from a unique financial perspective. The ideas and techniques are then applied to the real-world problem of generating sustainable retirement income towards the end of the human life-cycle. The role of lifetime income, longevity insurance, and systematic withdrawal plans are investigated in a parsimonious framework. The underlying technology and terminology of the book are based on continuous-time financial economics by merging analytic laws of mortality with the dynamics of equity markets and interest rates. Nonetheless, the book requires a minimal background in mathematics and emphasizes applications and examples more than proofs and theorems. It can serve as an ideal textbook for an applied course on wealth management and retirement planning in addition to being a reference for quantitatively-inclined financial planners.

This book presents an academic and a practical aspect on managing pension funds to clarify the global debate on social security. The authors establish the basic choices in designating any system to help policy makers develop the system that achieves their many objectives. They examine reforms in Latin America to highlight flaws and to estimate the true cost of these reforms and factors affecting these costs. The authors then discuss how the United States and Spain can implement robust systems incorporating many of the ideal features. The success of reforms depends on financial innovation to mitigate key risks and some innovations are discussed, which also demonstrates how pension reform choices affect the achievement of retirement objectives. Finally, the authors examine some proposed hybrid options to show how the beneficial features of these hybrids can be captured through good design in a single fund.

"This is a landmark book on pension fund management. All those with a stake in building pension wealth will profit from this commonsense and clearly readable guide to improved pension fund performance." —Burton G. Malkiel author of A Random Walk Down Wall Street and Chemical Bank Chairman's Professor of Economics, Princeton University.

"This is not just another book of theory about how pension funds should be managed, or about how one expert thinks an appropriate asset allocation should be determined. . . . There is keen analysis by Messrs. Ambachtsheer and Ezra, both of whom are veteran pension consultants noted for thinking outside the box." —Michael J. Clowes, Editorial Director Pensions & Investments.

"Keith Ambachtsheer and Don Ezra, two leading consultants, have written the most comprehensive handbook ever published on pension fund management. It's must reading for all those in a fiduciary role." —W. Allen Reed, President General Motors Investment Management Corp.

"Don Ezra and Keith Ambachtsheer are two of the best thinkers in the world of pension fund management. All who care about retirement assets will learn valuable lessons from their new book." —Charles D. Ellis, Managing Partner Greenwich Associates.

". . . powerful, authoritative, and provocative critique of a subject that concerns all of us . . ." —Peter L. Bernstein, President Peter L. Bernstein, Inc. author of Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk.

No longer obscure investment vehicles, pension funds have stepped out of the shadows and into the global spotlight. More and more, they are being seen as special financial institutions that need to create value for their millions of members and employers around the world. With assets close to $12 trillion—$7 trillion in the United States alone—pension funds are dominant players in financial markets and in corporate governance.

Yet they continue to be misunderstood and are often poorly managed. As advisors to many of the world's premier pension funds, Keith P. Ambachtsheer and D. Don Ezra have an international reputation as experts in the field. Now, their combined talents and experience yield a timely and thorough book on effective pension fund management. Pension Fund Excellence presents a guiding paradigm for articulating a fund's mission and for what needs to be done to accomplish it.

Along the way, the authors provide new insights on fundamental issues. What key elements integrate pension fund governance, management, and operations? What decision structure does an excellent pension fund organization use? What do the best decision-makers know about fiduciary responsibilities, pension economics, and the markets for financial capital and investment management services? What policies do they adopt? How do they measure results and tie results to compensation? How should small funds face their special challenges?

Their advice is made practical through real-world case studies that focus on the best practices employed by the world's premier pension funds. Their clear focus is on creating value for stakeholders.

Finally, Pension Fund Excellence looks beyond today, offering the authors' incisive views on three critical pension issues for the twenty-first century: the rise of defined contribution plans, fixing "broke" national social security schemes, and the growing economic power of pension funds.

Written by two leading authorities, Pension Fund Excellence contains the most up-to-date, insightful, practical information and advice available on this now hot topic. It is must reading for anyone seeking effective, proven management principles and techniques to create value for pension fund stakeholders.

The significant store of knowledge about publicly regulated pensions for old age has grown even more rapidly in the last decade. This book, first published in 1997, explores current research in four critical areas for pension policy: the political design of pension institutions; the iron links between fiscal deficits, private savings, and pension reform; how macroeconomic policy should be conducted after large private pension funds have emerged; and lessons on efficient organization of the pension industry, drawn from international comparisons including Australia, Chile, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom. The collection combines original theoretical analysis with empirical evidence. Simulations, case studies, and econometric estimates provide policy makers with information about the options they face, while scholars can draw on this book for refining their own investigations or research.

Every investment professional involved with the management of pension funds will embrace this wide-ranging handbook. Consisting of articles by an esteemed panel of contributors, it covers the basics as well as the latest on pension fund governance, operations, and value creation.

Retirement planning isn't something that happens at a specific point in time or at a specific age - we are all affecting our retirement plans every day with every decision we do or don't make. Canadians are living longer, and the average retiree in the future may have as much as 30 years of retirement to plan for, and there are many simple things that will impact our eventual retirement life. 52 Ways to Wreck Your Retirement identifies 52 things we do that could wreck our retirement, explains why it puts your retirement at risk, and provides the strategy to correct the mistake, or better still, avoid it entirely. The book is organized under several key areas of the planning process, including: * Starting to Plan for Retirement * Mistakes around Investing * Mistakes around Debt * Saving for Retirement * Pensions * Living in Retirement * Spending in Retirement * New Realities about Retirement 52 Ways to Wreck Your Retirement is not a feel-good book about how wonderful retirement will be or an alarming fear-mongering book about dying broke, nor is it a get-rich-late-retirement solution. Quite simply, it is an easily-accessible and practical guide written for Canadians of all ages that gives you the tools you need to better manage the financial and personal aspects of your retirement.

The significant store of knowledge about publicly regulated pensions for old age has grown even more rapidly in the past decade. This book explores current research in four critical areas for pension policy: the political design of pension institutions; the iron links among fiscal deficits, private savings, and pension reform; how macroeconomic policy should be conducted after large private pension funds have emerged; and lessons on efficient organization of the pension industry, drawn from international comparisons including Australia, Chile, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom.

The ICFP Personal Wealth Building Guides offer proven strategies and invaluable information for putting together the many pieces of a financial plan and reaching personal, long-term financial goals. Highly readable and interactive, these guides will help you establish clear-cut objectives and furnish you with the wherewithal for achieving them. How much money will I need for a comfortable retirement? How will early retirement affect my pension? Should I take a lump sum distribution or roll over my retirement benefits? Your Retirement Benefits delivers clear, down-to-earth answers to these and hundreds of other frequently asked questions about the retirement planning issues and decisions facing employees and business owners alike. It explains what you need to know about every major benefits plan in existence, how to choose the right plan and make it work for you, and how to insure the best deal at retirement. What's more, this valuable sourcebook helps you manage your benefits plan while you're still employed and guides you step-by-step as you make critical retirement decisions. It's chock full of anecdotes, worksheets, and personal action plans for organizing your financial information and putting your own retirement plan to work today. As in other ICFP Personal Wealth Building Guides, this important work features Action Items alerting you to the bases that must be covered before proceeding with a given plan...Wealth Building Profiles that add a lively, human dimension to the financial principles discussed...Questions and Answers on top-of-mind issues...Checklists at the end of each section reviewing key points...and Wealth Building Worksheets that lead you step-by-step throughimportant planning decisions.

Many people stumble through their financial life reacting to events and advice in an ad hoc way. As a result, few choose the most suitable financial products, some fall prey to misselling and many never realise their financial goals. Are you one of them? Be Your Own Financial Adviser shows you how to make sensible financial decisions without the need for expensive advice. Its accessible style, examples and case studies explain and evaluate financial products and put you firmly in control of your own financial well-being. It will advise on how to adopt the best saving, spending and investment strategies, make decisions tax-efficiently, manage risk wisely and protect and enhance your wealth. It also suggests when professional help is a good idea, and shows you how to protect yourself against misselling and get the best out of your adviser. Be Your Own Financial Adviser will show you how to: Stress-test your financial decisions Take advantage of legal tax breaks Achieve your financial goals Manage and preserve your wealth Accessing financial products and services is not difficult - there is no shortage of commercials, advertisements, direct mail, email and marketing calls to entice you to take out loans, buy insurance and invest your money. But choosing which products are right for you can be a hit and miss approach. Good financial planning requires a systematic strategy. You should start by assessing your own particular circumstances, attitudes and timescales and then work out how you can implement your strategy on a long term basis. Let Be Your Own Financial Adviser be your guide to making better financial decisions. It includes advice on the following: Financial planning Do you need an adviser? Protecting your income Providing for your family Health and care Somewhere to live Building a pension Retirement choices Saving and investing Managing your wealth Passing it on

This book presents a careful analysis of pension data collected by the Health and Retirement Study, a unique survey of people over the age of fifty conducted by the University of Michigan for the National Institute on Aging. The authors studied pensions as they evolve over individuals work lives and into retirement: how pension coverage and plans change over a lifetime, how many pensions workers have by the time they retire and what these pensions are worth, what pensions contribute to individual retirement incomes, and how trends and policy changes affect retirement plans.

The book focuses on the major features of pensions, including plan type and participation, ages of eligibility for retirement, values of different pension types, how pension values are influenced by retirement age, how plans are settled when a worker leaves a firm, how well people understand their pensions, the importance of pensions in retirement saving and as a share of household wealth, and the vulnerability of the retirement age population to the current financial crisis.

This book provides readers with an invaluable look at the crucial but ever-changing role of pensions in supporting retirees.

Transform the way you think about money in this easy-to-use, jargon-free guide by Anne Boden (CEO of Starling Bank) which busts commonly held financial myths, helping you to get the most of your cash in today's digital world. There's never been a shortage of advice on managing your money, clearing debt, being canny with your cash and getting the best deals. But it can be hard work, and everyone seems to be saying something different. What if you could easily cut through all the rhetoric and noise and everything could be made straightforward? In The Money Revolution, banking entrepreneur, and founder of award winning Starling Bank, Anne Boden shines a spotlight on how we save, spend and invest our money. By adopting a few new behaviours, it's possible to transform your bank balance for the better. The Money Revolution breaks through the traditional thinking about money and what you've always been told you should expect from financial institutions. Sharing the benefits of smart banking, fintech solutions and the advantages of open banking, it covers a range of financial solutions, from savings and investments to pensions, bill payments and travel money. Find out everything you need to know to get the best out of your money every day.

Transform the way you think about money in this easy-to-use, jargon-free guide by Anne Boden (CEO of Starling Bank) which busts commonly held financial myths, helping you to get the most of your cash in today's digital world. There's never been a shortage of advice on managing your money, clearing debt, being canny with your cash and getting the best deals. But it can be hard work, and everyone seems to be saying something different. What if you could easily cut through all the rhetoric and noise and everything could be made straightforward? In The Money Revolution, banking entrepreneur, and founder of award winning Starling Bank, Anne Boden shines a spotlight on how we save, spend and invest our money. By adopting a few new behaviours, it's possible to transform your bank balance for the better. The Money Revolution breaks through the traditional thinking about money and what you've always been told you should expect from financial institutions. Sharing the benefits of smart banking, fintech solutions and the advantages of open banking, it covers a range of financial solutions, from savings and investments to pensions, bill payments and travel money. Find out everything you need to know to get the best out of your money every day.

Would you like to be a millionaire? If you're like most people, your answer is "yes". But unlike popular opinion, this goal is not beyond your reach. Building wealth is more common sense than secret formula. You need to invest wisely. This easy-to-read guide focuses on traditional investments - stocks, bonds, and cash or cash equivalents. Stocks and bonds are the heartbeat of Wall Street. Finance experts H. Kent Baker, John R. Nofsinger, and Andrew C. Spieler take you through how to invest in a single security, as well as mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which offer many potential benefits to individual investors. This practical and straightforward book is written for novice investors. It takes an innovative question-and-answer format to help you learn about traditional investments and to become a better investor. If you want to become a millionaire, and don't have the luck of buying a winning lottery ticket, this guide is for you.

Retirement is being `reconstructed', with the UK following the US path of abolishing mandatory retirement and increasing state pension ages. This timely book assesses prospects for work and retirement at age 65-plus in the UK and US. It is essential reading for researchers, students and practitioners interested in the late careers and the future of retirement.

Don’t spend your time worrying whether you can beat the markets: you don’t need to beat them to be a successful investor. By showing you how to build a simple and rational portfolio and tailor it to your specific needs, Investing Demystified will help you generate superior returns.

With his straightforward and jargon-free advice, Lars Kroijer simplies the often complex world of finance and tells you everything you need to know – and everything that you don’t need to worry about – in order to make the most from your investments.

In Investing Demystified you will:

• Discover the mix of stocks, bonds and cash needed for a top performing portfolio

• Learn why the most broadly diversified and simplest portfolio makes the most sense

• Understand the right level of risk for you and how this affects your investments

• Find out why a low cost approach will yield benefits whilst leaving you with a higher quality portfolio

• Understand the implications of tax and liquidity

The private pension is a curiosity in the modern economic environment. Why do profit-seeking companies pay retirement benefits to those no longer on the job? In this new institutional history, Steven Sass explores the rise and growth of the financial support system that today commands trillions of dollars of investment capital and supports hundreds of thousands of older Americans.

Before 1900 America's elderly derived their livelihood from simple sources. They worked if they could, relied on their children, and took charity if necessary. By the dawn of the twentieth century, however, the country was constructing a new industrial economy. Both laborers and capital were moving away from farms toward large corporate establishments. These market changes weakened family links and traditional skills, rendering workers more vulnerable to economic shocks. The elderly, in particular, fell out of step with the new mechanized and bureaucratic regime. It was in response to these dramatic economic shifts that the institution of private pensions emerged. In return for workers' long-term loyalty, employers promised to help sustain them through old age.

As Sass shows, creating the pension system proved far more complicated than anyone had anticipated. Over the last hundred years it has evolved into a complex institution driven by congressional mandates, judicial/administrative decisions, union campaigns, political debates, and the ministrations of lawyers, economists, human resource specialists, actuaries, and insurance experts. Sass traces the U.S. pension system through to the present day, exploring how our modern corporate economy is confronting the challenges of an aging population.

Trustees play an important role in the management of the retirement fund they are affiliated to. Sadly, many trustees and boards fail to live up to their promise and potential, mainly because they’re part-time trustees without a complete understanding of their fiduciary, legal and compliance duties, obligations and responsibilities. Trustees are required to consult with experts on matters that they lack sufficient knowledge in. However, some understanding of the subject matter is required among them in order for the board to assimilate the advice that they are given. The purpose of this book is to combine most of the many fields that trustees are expected to have a knowledge of in one publication, written in easy-to-understand layman’s language, that can serve as a guide for the average trustee. The various types of retirement funds and benefits payable inside and outside of the fund are explained. Legislation with regard to minimum benefits, the responsibility of trustees to communicate to members and other stakeholders and what the minimum requirements are for this communication are also discussed. The role, fiduciary responsibility and duties of the board of trustees are carefully unpacked, the various pieces of legislation that the trustees deal with and the role that the rules of the fund play in the fulfilling of their duties are explained. All these are discussed and brought into perspective with the principles of good governance and ethics. And to make the read so much more interesting, the book includes about 50 pages of the principles of investments that a trustee should know. This publication should make trustees and boards less reliant on advice from the so-called experts whose advice leans towards their own interest. It should enable trustees to distinguish between the many excellent, honest and hardworking advisors and the few unscrupulous ones.

Since the early 1990s the countries of the European Union and Central and Eastern Europe have been involved in the process of reforming their retirement income systems. The principal objective of these reforms is to contain the cost of pay-as-you-go public pensions in the face of ageing populations. Many of the reforms involve greater reliance on personal saving and the development of capital markets to fund private pension arrangements. The distinguished contributors from Europe and the United States demonstrate the complexity of pension provision and reform, and highlight the dangers of focusing on one particular model. They consider critical issues and debates about how to finance pensions, present evidence on the effects of pension reform on the incomes of the elderly, set out objectives to ensure intergenerational equity in public pensions, and examine different pathways to pension coverage. They also argue that recent reforms in Europe may have the effect of reducing the incomes of future pensioners while exposing them to uninsurable risks associated with private pensions. This book addresses a pervasive and increasingly important issue by identifying differences in pension systems throughout the EU and Europe as a whole, and proposing various reforms and solutions to the emerging problem of pension provision. It will prove essential reading and a valuable source of reference for academics, economists, policymakers and government agencies concerned with the evolution and reform of pensions, and with social and economic development in general.

This book focuses on pension policies in Europe and interestingly includes comparisons both within the EU and between EU countries and the US. The authors show how different countries are confronted with similar problems and that comparison of national experiences may be of great help for the 'open method of coordination' now adopted in the EU. The papers deal mainly with the effects of the huge payroll taxes differentials between countries on individual retirement choices and the labour market, with taxation of contributions and pensions, and with the portability of occupational pensions. The main impact on labour supply is shown to be early retirement due to actuarially unfair pension formulae. The authors also argue that the US experience shows that taxation of contributions and savings for old-age may not generate the hoped for incentive effects, while an example of inconsistent taxation of pensions is offered by Germany. Finally, it is shown that limited portability of defined benefits plans does not appear to be a strong impediment to labour mobility in Europe. Pension Policy in an Integrating Europe will be valued by scholars of both public policy, public finance and European studies, and those practitioners and policymakers involved in insurance in the EU.

A comprehensive plan from two leading experts on how to fix America's outdated retirement system America's retirement system has serious problems. While it works well for some retirees, millions of others don't have the sound retirement they have worked decades to secure. Roughly 40 percent of today's $4 trillion federal budget is devoted to supporting retirees, which will grow to roughly half over the next decade-imperiling the sustainability of the whole system. The system is out of date. It reflects the America of a bygone age—an era in which company or union pensions provided middle-class families a decent standard of living in retirement. In America today, however, private pensions have mostly disappeared, Social Security is threatened to go insolvent, people are living longer, and health care costs continue to rise. Poorer retirees now must choose between buying enough to eat and their prescription drugs. In The Retirement Challenge, influential former White House economists Martin Neil Baily and Benjamin H. Harris explore America's outdated retirement system and explain how improving retirement requires changes by families, employers, and policymakers alike. Households need to save more, get smarter about their finances, and trade part of their 401(k) balances for insurance products. Companies need to take a more active role in their workers' retirements. And lawmakers need to amend the tax code, Social Security, and a host of other programs. Despite today's wide political divide, policymakers from both parties can come together around changes that will promote a stable retirement. This book shows that these changes do not represent a radical overhaul. If families, businesses, and policymakers do their part, everyone-current retirees and future generations-can enjoy a much more secure and prosperous retirement.

This book is about retirement income security. This income security is provided by national public pensions, corporate pensions, and individual and reverse mortgages. However, these systems vary greatly from country to country and, in many countries, do not provide sufficient coverage. Ensuring income security in old age is an important issue that must be resolved in the rapidly aging environment of the world. From the perspective of financial consumers, this book cross-sectionally surveys public pensions, corporate pensions, individual pensions and reverse mortgages and compares them among many important nations. This gives many implications from the perspective of designing an overall income security for each individual. In addition, it presents many of the issues needed for these sustainable and comprehensive income security.