A pension is a voluntary benefit offered by employers to assist employees in providing for their financial security in retirement. Public and private sector defined benefit pension plans are subject to different rules and guidance regarding discount rates -- interest rates used to determine the current value of estimated future benefit payments. This book addresses the significance of differences in approaches used to determine discount rates among public and private plans; purposes for measuring the value of a plan's future benefits and key considerations for determining discount rate policy; and approaches selected countries have taken to choose discount rates.

The private sector pension system in the United States represents trillions of dollars in assets and is a key source of financial security for millions of Americans. To promote transparency and enhance retirement security, legislation and regulations require that plan sponsors provide numerous reports to Labor, IRS, and PBGC, and numerous disclosures to plan participants. This book examines the reports and disclosures pension plans are required to make to government agencies and plan participants; the ways, if any, reports to agencies may be inefficient or ineffective; and the ways, if any, disclosures to participants may be inefficient or ineffective. The book also discusses the extent to which law and regulations permit electronic disclosure to participants; explores the reported advantages and disadvantages associated with electronic delivery; and evaluates the weaknesses identified, if any, in the agencies' electronic delivery requirements

This book provides background and analysis of the premiums charged by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), which is a government-owned corporation that was created in 1974 to protect the retirement income of participants in private-sector, defined benefit (DB) pension plans. When a company terminates a DB pension plan that does not have enough assets to pay 100% of the promised benefits, PBGC pays, in accordance with statute and up to a maximum yearly dollar amount, the benefits to participants in the terminated plan. In FY2012, 887,000 individuals received $5.5 billion in benefit payments from PBGC. An additional 614,000 workers will receive benefits when they retire. PBGC consists of two insurance programs: (1) a multi-employer pension program, which protects the benefits of 10.3 million participants in collectively bargained DB pensions in which several employers make contributions, and (2) a larger single-employer pension program, which protects the benefits of 33.4 million participants in DB pensions operated by one employer for its eligible employees.

While the immediate dangers from the recent financial crisis have abated --much of the financial system has returned to profitability and the economy is growing, albeit slowly --the damage to the economy will linger for years. Among the many impacts is the problem that may be most acute in the United States: how state and local governments and private companies will honor their obligations under defined benefit (DB) pension plans. Institutional investors also confront new difficulties in the low-interest-rate environment that has prevailed since the onset of the crisis. East Asian economies, namely in Japan, Korea, and China, also face pension issues as their populations age.

In "Growing Old," experts from academia and the private sector consider the hard questions regarding the future of pension plans and institutional money management, both in the United States and in Asia. This volume is the latest collaboration between the Brookings Institution and the Nomura Institute of Capital Markets Research on issues confronting the financial sector of common interest to audiences in the United States and Japan.

Contributors: Olivia S. Mitchell (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania), Akiko Nomura (Nomura Institute of Capital Markets Research), Robert Novy-Marx (Simon Graduate School of Business, University of Rochester), Betsy Palmer (MFS Investment Management), Robert Pozen (Harvard Business School), Joshua Rauh (Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University), Natalie Shapiro (MFS Investment Management)

This book looks at the 78 million members of the "baby boom" generation who are beginning to retire. After many years of accumulating assets to spend in retirement, they now must decide how to convert these assets into a steady stream of income. Because of the trend away from defined benefit (DB) pensions to defined contribution (DC) plans, such as 401(k)plans, future retirees will be less likely to have a guaranteed stream of income from defined benefit pensions. Furthermore, while Social Security will provide a guaranteed income to most retirees, it will replace only a relatively small portion of their pre-retirement income.

The long-term trend in declining retirement security has been exacerbated by the recent turmoil in the financial markets, and underscores the need for swift and broad action to vastly improve the retirement income security for the majority of American families. Americans need to be reassured that the money that they will save for retirement will actually be there when they need it. The exposure to large market swings, as we have experienced twice in the past decade, can send individual investors scrambling for an exit at the most inopportune time. This prevents them from saving enough, and actually increases their exposure to financial market risks. This book examines the impact and issues of the financial crisis on retirement security in the United States. This book consists of public documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.

This book focuses on women and retirement. Women aged 65 and over will account for a growing segment of the U.S. population over the next several decades. Despite increases in women's workforce behaviour in the past 65 years, elderly women have persistently high rates of poverty. Thus, it is important to understand the differences between men's and women's retirement income, and how women may fare given future reforms to Social Security and pensions. Preparing for retirement and achieving financial security are daunting tasks for all Americans to be sure; however, women face many unique challenges. Women still perform the primary caretaker role in our society. As a result, many women spend significant periods of time out of the workforce raising children or taking care of elderly parents, significantly diluting their earning power. Women are also more likely to work part-time or work in industries where employers are less likely to offer retirement benefits. And women generally earn less than men. In 2004, women earned 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. All of these factors have a significant impact on what women receive from Social Security and pension, as well as what they are able to accumulate through personal savings. This income gap is further exacerbated by the fact that women generally live longer than men, and therefore, need to stretch their income over a longer period of time. This book consists of public domain documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.

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

Individual retirement accounts, or IRAs, hold more assets than any other type of retirement vehicle. In 2004, IRAs held about $3.5 trillion in assets compared to $2.6 trillion in defined contribution (DC) plans, including 401(k) plans, and $1.9 trillion in defined benefit (DB), or pension plans. Similar percentages of households own IRAs and participate in 401(k) plans, and IRA ownership is associated with higher educational and income levels. Congress created IRAs to provide a way for individuals without employer plans to save for retirement, and to give retiring workers or those changing jobs a way to preserve retirement assets by rolling over, or transferring, plan balances into IRAs. Rollovers into IRAs significantly outpace IRA contributions and account for most assets flowing into IRAs. Given the total assets held in IRAs, they may appear to be comparable to 401(k) plans. However, 401(k) plans are employer-sponsored while most households with IRAs own traditional IRAs established outside the workplace. Several barriers may discourage employers from establishing employer-sponsored IRAs and offering payroll-deduction IRAs to their employees. Although employer-sponsored IRAs were designed with fewer reporting requirements to encourage participation by small employers and payroll-deduction IRAs have none, millions of employees of small firms lack access to a workplace retirement plan. Retirement and savings experts and others told the authors that barriers discouraging employers from offering these IRAs include costs that small businesses may incur for managing IRA plans, a lack of flexibility for employers seeking to promote payroll-deduction IRAs to their employees, and certain contribution requirements of some IRAs. Information is lacking, however, on what the actual costs to employers may be for providing payroll-deduction IRAs and questions remain on the effect that expanded access to these IRAs may have on employees. Experts noted that several proposals exist to encourage employers to offer and employees to participate in employer-sponsored and payroll-deduction IRAs, however limited government actions have been taken. The Internal Revenue Service and Labour share oversight for all types of IRAs, but gaps exist within Labour's area of responsibility. IRS is responsible for tax rules on establishing and maintaining IRAs, while Labour is responsible for oversight of fiduciary standards for employer-sponsored IRAs and provides certain guidance on payroll-deduction IRAs, although Labour does not have jurisdiction. Oversight ensures the interests of the employee participants are protected, that their retirement savings are properly handled, and any applicable guidance and laws are being followed. Because there are very limited reporting requirements for employer-sponsored IRAs and none for payroll-deduction IRAs, Labour does not have processes in place to identify all employers offering IRAs, numbers of employees participating, and employers not in compliance with the law. Obtaining information about employer-sponsored and payroll-deduction IRAs is also important to determine whether these vehicles help workers without DC or DB plans build retirement savings. Although IRS collects and publishes some data on IRAs, IRS has not consistently produced reports on IRAs nor shared such information with other agencies, such as Labour. Labour's Bureau of Labour Statistics National Compensation Survey surveys employer-sponsored benefit plans but collects limited information on employer-sponsored IRAs and no information on payroll-deduction IRAs. Since IRS is the only agency that has data on all IRA participants, consistent reporting of these data could give Labour and others valuable information on IRAs.

"Automatic" offers an innovative new way to think about how Americans can save for retirement.

Over the past quarter century, America's pension system has shifted away from defined benefit plans and toward defined contribution savings programs such as 401(k)s and IRAs. There is much to be done to improve the defined contribution system. Many workers fail to participate and those who do often contribute too little, invest the funds poorly, and are not adequately prepared to manage funds while in retirement.

To resolve these problems, the authors propose that employees should be automatically enrolled into a 401(k) plan when they are hired, with the right to opt out, change the amount that they contribute, or change investment choices if they choose. If the employer does not sponsor a 401(k) or similar retirement plan, they would be enrolled in a payroll deduction Automatic IRA. This vision of a transformed defined contribution system incorporates key positive features of defined benefit plans to improve retirement security. Employess contributions would increase over time, their investments would benefit from professional management and rebalancing, and they would receive lifetime income upon retirement. These automatic features will make the 401(k) and similar plans a more effective tool for retirement saving, and they can be extended to the many workers who do not currently have access to an employer plan.

In "Automatic," the authors present proposals to implement automatic features in all phases of the 401(k) and in IRAs for workers with no employer plan. They also draw from the experience of countries that have implemented automatic saving structures.

As Social Security, workplace pensions, and individual retirement accounts become more insecure, America's pension system is in serious need of rehabilitation. In this timely volume, Mitchell A. Orenstein and his distinguished colleagues Gary Burtless, Teresa Ghilarducci, and Alicia Munnell argue that any reform of the U.S. pension system must address both future imbalances in the Social Security program and weaknesses in the workplace and individual retirement systems on which a growing number of Americans now rely. Weighing what is gained against what is lost as new proposals surface, this book offers a clear account and reasoned analysis of the looming crisis, as well as our collective alternatives both domestically and abroad.

Over the past half-century, the number of state and local government workers has grown significantly. In 2006, this sector accounted for about 12 percent of the nation's workforce. Since 1996, accounting standards calling for state and local governments to report their liabilities for future pension costs have been in place, but standards calling for similar treatment of the future costs of retiree health benefits have only recently been issued. It is unclear as yet, what actions state and local governments may take once the future costs of these benefits are known. However, future decisions about the appropriate levels of benefits for retirees will likely occur in a broader context of persistent fiscal challenges that state and local governments will face in the next decade. Hence, concerns have been raised about the public sector's capacity to meet the rising cost of providing its retirees with promised pension and other post-employment benefits, such as retiree health care. State and local retiree benefits are not subject, for the most part, to federal laws governing private sector retiree benefits. Nevertheless, there is a federal interest in ensuring that all Americans have a secure retirement, an interest that is reflected in preferential tax treatment for contributions and investment earnings associated with qualified pension plans in both the public and the private sectors. This is an excerpted and indexed edition.

The future of retirement programs is troubled, both in the United States and in most other developed countries with aging populations. As improvements in health care and changes in lifestyles enable retirees to live longer than ever before, the stress on national budgets will increase substantially. In "Social Security Programs and Retirement" around the World, Jonathan Gruber, David A. Wise, and experts in many countries examine the consequences of reforming retirement benefits in a dozen nations. Drawing on the work of an international group of noted economists, the editors argue that social security programs provide strong incentives for workers to leave the labor force by retiring and taking the benefits to which they are entitled. By penalizing work, social security systems magnify the increased financial burden caused by aging populations, thus contributing to the insolvency of the system. This book is a model of comparative analysis that evaluates the effects of illustrative policies for countries facing the impending rapid growth of social security benefits. Its insights will help inform this most pressing debate.

The Evolving Pension System examines the foundations and the future of the private pension system. It provides a broad overview of the underlying assumptions, characteristics, and effects of existing pension policy, as well as alternative views on how public policy toward pensions should evolve in the future. Contributors include Robert Clark (North Carolina State University), Eric Engen (Federal Reserve Board), William G. Gale (Brookings Institution), Theodore Groom (Groom Law Group, Chartered), Daniel Halperin (Harvard), Alicia Munnell (Boston College), Leslie Papke (Michigan State University), Joseph Quinn (Boston College), Sylvester Schieber (Watson Wyatt), John B. Shoven (Stanford), and Jack Vanderhei (Temple University and EBRI). William G. Gale is the Joseph A. Pechman Fellow in the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institution. John B. Shoven is Charles R. Schwab Professor at Stanford University. Mark J. Warshawsky is director of research at the TIAA-CREF Institute.

"Analyses in the Economics of Aging" presents a massive amount of new research on several popular and less-examined topics pertaining to the economic aspects of aging. Among the many themes explored in this volume, considerable attention is given to new research on retirement savings, the cost and efficiency of medical resources, and the predictors of health events.
The volume begins with a discussion of the risks and merits of personal retirement saving plans and how default contributions to such plans-401(k) plans in particular-might be determined. Subsequent chapters present recent analysis of the growth of Medicare costs, some of which is attributed to inefficiencies in the system; the efficiency of health care services in the United States; the different aspects of disability; and the joint evolution of health, wealth, and living arrangements over the life cycle. Keeping with the global tradition of previous volumes, "Analyses in the Economics of Aging" also includes comparative studies on savings behavior in Italy, the Netherlands, and the United States; an examination of household savings among different age groups in Germany; and a chapter devoted to population aging and the plight of widows in India.
Carefully compiled and containing some of the most cutting-edge research and analysis available, this volume should be of interest to any specialist or policymaker concerned with ongoing changes in savings and retirement behaviors.

This study of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) explains in detail how public officials in the executive branch and Congress overcame strong opposition from business and organized labor to pass landmark legislation regulating employer-sponsored retirement and health plans. Before Congress passed ERISA, federal law gave employers and unions great discretion in the design and operation of employee benefit plans. Most importantly, firms and unions could and often did establish pension plans that placed employees at great risk for not receiving any retirement benefits. In the early 1960s, officials in the executive branch proposed a number of regulatory initiatives to protect employees, but business groups and most labor unions objected to the key proposals. Faced with opposition from powerful interest groups, legislative entrepreneurs in Congress, chiefly New York Republican senator Jacob K. Javits, took the case for pension reform directly to voters by publicizing frightening statistics and "horror stories" about pension plans. This deft and successful effort to mobilize the media and public opinion overwhelmed the business community and organized labor and persuaded Javits's colleagues in Congress to support comprehensive pension reform legislation. The enactment of ERISA in September 1974 recast federal policy for private pension plans by making worker security an overriding objective of federal law.

Individual retirement accounts (IRAs), established by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (PL 93-406) to promote retirement saving, were limited at first to workers (and spouses) who lacked employer pension coverage. Income tax was deferred on both contribution and investment earnings. Annual contributions were limited to the smaller of $1,500 or 15% of earnings. Eligibility was expanded to all workers and their spouses by the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (PL 97-34). Annual contributions were limited to the smaller of $2,000 or 100% earnings. The Tax Reform Act Reform Act of 1986 (PL 99-514) continued tax deferral for IRA earnings, but it limited tax deferrals for contributions to those from: (1) tax filers with no employer plan (for either spouse); and (2) filers with employer pension coverage but whose adjusted gross income (AGI) is below specified limits. The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 (PL 105-34) increased these AGI limits, allowed penalty-free early withdrawals for higher education expenses and first-home purchases, and authorised a new 'Roth IRA' to provide tax-free income from after-tax contributions and untaxed investment earnings. This book reviews the key details concerning these legal arrangements for retirement.

Banking on Death offers a panoramic view of the history and future of pension provision. A work of unique scope, it traces the origins and development of the pension idea, from the days of the French Revolution to the troubles of the modern welfare state. As we live longer, employers are closing their pension schemes and many claim that public treasuries will not be able to cope with the retirement of the babyboomers. Banking on Death analyses the challenge facing public schemes and the malfunctioning of private retirement provision, concluding with a bold proposal for how to pay for decent pensions for all. Robin Blackburn argues that pension funds have been depleted by wasteful promotion and used as gambling chips by ruthless and overpaid top executives. This is the world of 'grey capitalism,' where employees' savings are sequestrated from them and pressed into the service of corporate aggrandisement. Even the best companies find it hard to run a business and a pension fund at the same time-especially when the latter is larger than the former. The fund managers' notorious short-termism and herd instinct, and their failure to curb the greed and irresponsibility of the corporate elite, lead to obscene inequalities and a blighted social landscape. The pension privatisation lobby, Blackburn shows, has lost major battles in France and Germany, the United States and Italy, because of the popular fears it evokes. And the case for privatisation looks intellectually threadbare after withering critiques from such notable theorists as Joseph Stiglitz and Pierre Bourdieu. Banking on Death shows that pensions are political dynamite, and have undone governments from France and Italy to Argentina. Popular outcries led Reagan, Clinton, and Blair to change tack: will this happen to George W. Bush too? Blackburn argues that the ageing society will generate increased costs but, so long as the new life course is properly financed, all age groups will gain. He proposes a public regime of asset-based welfare, drawing on the ideas of John Maynard Keynes and Rudolf Meidner, that could ensure secondary pensions for all and foster a more responsible, egalitarian and humane pattern of economic development.

In a world of ageing populations, and in the midst of a global shift from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) pensions, the onus is increasingly on individuals rather than employers to bear the risks of retirement provision. This book weighs the experiences of eight nations across the Americas, Asia and Europe, who have in common early adoption of DC pensions, but very different experiences of mitigation of that risk by the state, either directly through the degree of generosity of the state pension or indirectly through regulation of private pension provision. As the UK (and the world) gears up for the age of DC pensions, different approaches to pension scheme design are examined. Best practice is always worth learning from and each chapter is written by an expert on their chosen pension system.

The great majority of working Americans are unprepared to face the difficult task of planning for retirement. In fact, the personal savings rate has been holding steady at zero for several years, down from 8 percent in the mid-1980s. "Overcoming the Saving Slump "explores the many challenges facing workers in the transition from a traditional defined benefit pension system to one that requires more individual responsibility, analyzing the considerable impediments to saving and evaluating financial literacy programs devised by employers and the government. Mapping the changing landscape of pensions and the rise of defined contribution plans, Annamaria Lusardi and others investigate new methods for stimulating saving and promoting financial education drawing on the experience of the United States as well as countries that have privatized their welfare systems, including Sweden and Chile. This timely volume pinpoints where human resources departments, the financial industry, and government officials have succeeded--or failed--in bridging the way to a new retirement system. As the workforce ages and more pensions disappear each second, Lusardi's findings will be invaluable for economists and anyone facing retirement.

For more than fifty years, pensions have been the subject of academic enquiry and controversy. Debates have raged over, amongst other things, the need for pensions, the means by which they might be delivered, their implications for the public finances, their impact on an individual's employment motivations and their significance for national and global capital markets. These debates, and others, have spawned a vast and disparate literature. Currently, the issue that most often exercises the minds of academics and policy makers is that of pension reform. It is widely recognized that decades of social and economic change have rendered obsolete the pension arrangements in many developed and developing countries. The question of what now constitutes an appropriate set of pension arrangements is, however, far from settled. Opinions are divided over whether existing national pension systems can be modified to make them fit contemporary needs and circumstances, or whether they should be jettisoned in favour of something entirely different. Central to the analysis of many issues in pension provision is the universal phenomenon of population ageing. Around the world, falling birth rates and rising life expectancy are raising the ratio of elderly to working-age people. For several decades the literature on pensions and population ageing has been extremely negative. Recently, though, a series of books and papers have appeared which argue for a more benign, less pessimistic, interpretation of population ageing. The papers and articles included in each volume of this new Routledge Major Work have been selected so as to reflect the multi-dimensional nature of the subject and the interest it has aroused internationally. With a full index and an introduction newly written by the editor, this four-volume collection is a unique and valuable research resource for both student and scholar alike.

The rancorous debate over the future of Social Security reached a fever pitch in 2005 when President Bush unsuccessfully proposed a plan for private retirement accounts. Although efforts to reform Social Security seem to have reached an impasse, the long-term problem the projected Social Security deficit remains. In Pension Puzzles, sociologists Melissa Hardy and Lawrence Hazelrigg explain for a general audience the fiscal challenges facing Social Security and explore the larger political context of the Social Security debate. Pension Puzzles cuts through the sloganeering of politicians in both parties, presenting Social Security s technical problems evenhandedly and showing how the Social Security debate is one piece of a larger political struggle. Hardy and Hazelrigg strip away the ideological baggage to explicate the basic terms and concepts needed to understand the predicament of Social Security. They compare the cases for privatizing Social Security and for preserving the program in its current form with adjustments to taxes and benefits, and they examine the different economic projections assumed by proponents of each approach. In pursuit of its privatization agenda, Hardy and Hazelrigg argue, the Bush administration has misled the public on an issue that was already widely misunderstood. The authors show how privatization proponents have relied on dubious assumptions about future rates of return to stock market investments and about the average citizen s ability to make informed investment decisions. In addition, the administration has painted the real but manageable shortfalls in Social Security revenue as a fiscal crisis. Projections of Social Security revenues and benefits by the Social Security Administration have treated revenues as fixed, when in fact they are determined by choices made by Congress. Ultimately, as Hardy and Hazelrigg point out, the clash over Social Security is about more than technical fiscal issues: it is part of the larger culture wars and the ideological struggle over what kind of social responsibilities and rights American citizens should have. This rancorous partisan wrangling, the alarmist talk about a crisis in Social Security, and the outright deception employed in this debate have all undermined the trust between citizens and government that is needed to restore the solvency of Social Security for future generations of retirees. Drawing together economic analyses, public opinion data, and historical narratives, Pension Puzzles is a lucid and engaging guide to the major proposals for Social Security reform. It is also an insightful exploration of what that debate reveals about American political culture in the twenty-first century."