Defined Contribution Plans: Challenges and Opportunities for Plan Sponsors
Defined Contribution Plans: Challenges and Opportunities for Plan Sponsors

Author: Jeffery V. Bailey

Publisher: CFA Institute Research Foundation

Published: 2021-08-11

Total Pages: 108

ISBN-13: 1952927218

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American workers rely on their employers to provide a way to generate retirement income beyond their Social Security earnings. Many employers still offer traditional defined benefit (DB) pension plans. A growing majority, however, have replaced DB plans with account-based defined contribution (DC) plans. Virtually everyone acknowledges that the basic DC plan design is flawed. Yet as a society with low private savings and a fraying Social Security system, we count on this imperfect structure to serve as a retirement security bulwark. Workers and society both need the employer-sponsored retirement system to function well. Enhancing DC plan design therefore becomes critical. Defined Contribution Plans: Challenges and Opportunities for Plan Sponsors offers guidance to plan sponsors interested in better understanding the primary issues confronting DC plans. We wrote this book from the viewpoint of the plan sponsor seeking to improve the DC system, and it follows five major themes: the plan participant, the plan sponsor, plan design, investments and investment managers, and asset decumulation in retirement. We present the material conversationally from a high-level perspective. We have not sought to write an encyclopedia on DC plans but rather focus on the basic features of well-run plans. We address key challenges facing DC plans and offer associated design and policy recommendations for plan sponsors and other interested parties to consider. Plan design improvements almost certainly will be incremental, rather than sweeping top-down changes mandated by regulators. Plan sponsors individually will make the important decisions that have lasting consequences for participants and for society. Our objective is to spark interest among sponsors, encouraging them to carry out additional research and take action. We believe the DC system will be strengthened by informed sponsors advocating for and implementing thoughtful strategic changes to their plans.

The Oxford Handbook of Pensions and Retirement Income
The Oxford Handbook of Pensions and Retirement Income

Author: Gordon L. Clark

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2006-07-20

Total Pages: 954

ISBN-13: 9780199272464

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This handbook draws on research from a range of academic disciplines to reflect on the implications for provisions of pension and retirement income of demographic ageing. it reviews the latest research, policy related tools, analytical methods and techniques and major theoretical frameworks.

Designing Successful Target-Date Strategies for Defined Contribution Plans
Designing Successful Target-Date Strategies for Defined Contribution Plans

Author: Stacy L. Schaus

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2010-03-09

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 0470632887

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The ultimate guidebook for navigating the new world of pensions and retirement plans In the wake of the explosive growth of defined contribution (DC) plans invested with target date strategies, and the understanding of how important these strategies can be in effectively meeting retirement income goals, plan sponsors are seeking more optimal target date approaches. This timely book provides you with in-depth answers from the nation's most qualified and experienced experts to pressing questions about DC plan design. Presents the views of individuals from all across the market Includes a broad range of plan sponsors both in the corporate world and in the public/government sectors Offers views from consultants and advisors from the most respected firms, academics who teach at leading universities, and other innovative leaders With a broad range of knowledge and insight, Designing Successful Target Date Strategies in Defined Contribution Plans helps you understand the evolution of DC plans, pulls together all angles of what it takes to develop custom target date strategies, and provides you with a look ahead to the future.

OECD Pensions Outlook 2020
OECD Pensions Outlook 2020

Author: Oecd

Publisher:

Published: 2020-12-07

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 9789264633452

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The 2020 edition of the OECD Pensions Outlook examines a series of policy options to help governments improve the sustainability and resilience of pension systems. It considers how to ensure that policy makers balance the trade-off between the short-term and long-term consequences of policy responses to COVID-19; how to determine and assess the adequacy of retirement income; how funded pension arrangements can support individuals in non-standard forms of work to save for retirement; how to select default investment strategies; how to address the potential negative consequences from frequent switching of investment strategies; and, how retirement income arrangements can share both the investment and longevity risks among different stakeholders in a sustainable manner. This edition also discusses how governments can communicate in a way that helps people choose their optimal investment strategies.

State and Local Pensions
State and Local Pensions

Author: Alicia H. Munnell

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2012-08-27

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 0815724136

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In the wake of the financial crisis and Great Recession, the health of state and local pension plans has emerged as a front burner policy issue. Elected officials, academic experts, and the media alike have pointed to funding shortfalls with alarm, expressing concern that pension promises are unsustainable or will squeeze out other pressing government priorities. A few local governments have even filed for bankruptcy, with pensions cited as a major cause. Alicia H. Munnell draws on both her practical experience and her research to provide a broad perspective on the challenge of state and local pensions. She shows that the story is big and complicated and cannot be viewed through a narrow prism such as accounting methods or the role of unions. By examining the diversity of the public plan universe, Munnell debunks the notion that all plans are in trouble. In fact, she finds that while a few plans are basket cases, many are functioning reasonably well. Munnell's analysis concludes that the plans in serious trouble need a major overhaul. But even the relatively healthy plans face three challenges ahead: an excessive concentration of plan assets in equities; the risk that steep benefit cuts for new hires will harm workforce quality; and the constraints plans face in adjusting future benefits for current employees. Here, Munnell proposes solutions that preserve the main strengths of state and local pensions while promoting needed reforms.

Retirement Savings Policy
Retirement Savings Policy

Author: Michael P. Barry

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2018-09-10

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1547400358

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Mike brings to this work his comprehensive experience and consummate technical talent in a beautifully readable book. A treasure. --Frank Cummings, Former Adjunct Lecturer in Law at UVA Law School, Columbia Law School, NYU Law School, and ALI-ABA Retirement Savings Policy reviews the basic policies that govern retirement savings plans, and their real world application, focusing on the key issues of finance, taxation, fiduciary conduct, and employee choice. The discussion is framed around the three fundamental challenges confronting employers and employees today – the pension legacy, the 401(k) revolution, and the pressure, from policymakers, regulators, opinion leaders, and individuals, for changes that will put retirement security within reach of all Americans. With more than 40 years’ experience in the field, Michael P. Barry provides both a wealth of practical detail – best practices and concrete solutions – and a broad framework for understanding the issues surrounding retirement plans and strategies. The result is a comprehensive introduction to the forces that drive sponsor, participant, and policymaker decision-making. This is the perfect book for benefits and financial professionals who want a better understanding of the basic rules that govern retirement plan administration but also serves those interested in truly understanding the nuances and issues surrounding retirement plans and policies. The approach is practical, focusing on how US retirement plans actually work, how they are taxed (and not taxed), how they are regulated. But it is also conceptual, devoting considerable attention to an understanding of why these plans work the way they do. Why regulators and policymakers are so focused on a handful of issues – expanding coverage, reducing fees, fairness. And, at the highest level, what are the problems that we are trying to solve. As such, much of what we discuss will be of interest to a more general reader, who wants a realistic understanding of what is really at stake in current retirement policy debates.