Pension Design and Structure New Lessons from Behavioral Finance

Employees are being given more and more decisions to make with regards to their pension and healthcare plans. Yet increasing research in the social sciences shows that the decisions 'real' people make are not those of the thoughtful and well-informed economic agent often portrayed in economic
research, but are often based on flawed information and made without a full understanding of their financial implications.
The contributors to Pension Design and Structure explore the assumptions behind commonly-held theories of retirement decision-making, and the consequences of the growing volume of research in behavioral finance and economics for the field of pension research. Using large datasets newly provided by
financial service firms and real-world experiments, this volume tests the hypotheses of this research.
This is the first book to explore the implications of behavioral finance research for pensions and retirement studies, and uses frontier research from several fields, including Finance, Economics, Management, Sociology, and Psychology. Contributors include leading pensions experts.

Employees are increasingly asked to make sophisticated decisions about their pension and healthcare plans. Yet recent research shows that the decisions 'real' people make are often not those of the careful and well-informed economic agent conventionally portrayed in economic research. Rather, decision-makers tend to operate with flawed information and make some of the most critical financial decisions of their lives lacking a full understanding of the options before them and the implications of their decisions. Pension Design and Structure explores the assumptions behind commonly-held theories of retirement decision-making, in order to draw out the consequences of frontier research in behavioral finance and economics for those interested in better design and structure of retirement pensions. Using large datasets newly provided by financial service firms and real-world experiments, this volume tests the hypotheses of this research. This is the first book to explore the implications of behavioral finance research for pensions and retirement studies. The authors blend cutting-edge research from several fields including Finance, Economics, Management, Sociology, and Psychology. The book will be of interest to pension plan participants and sponsors, financial service groups responsible for pensions, and retirement system regulators.

1 - Lessons From Behavioural Fianance for Retirement Plan Design
2 - Motivating Retirement Planning: Problems and Solutions
3 - Who's Afraid of a Poor Old Age? Risk Perception and Risk Management Decisions
4 - Behavioral Portfolios: Hopes for Riches and Protection from Poverty
5 - How Much Choice is Too Much? Contributions to 401(k) Retirement Plans
6 - 'Money Attitudes' and Retirement Plan Design: One Size Does Not Fit All
7 - Employee Investment Decisions About Company Stock
8 - Implications of Information and Social Interactions for Retirement Saving Decisions
9 - Saving and the Effectiveness of Financial Education
10 - Sex Differences, Financial Education, and Retirement Goals
11 - The Impact of Advice on Employee Behavior and Retirement Prospects
12 - Adult Learning Principles and Pension Participant Behavior
13 - How Do Retirees Go From Stock to Flow?
14 - Annuities and Retirement Satisfaction
15 - Perceptions of Mortality Risk: Implications for Annuities

Olivia S. Mitchell is Executive Director of the Pension Research Council, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania , and also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Her academic research explores private and publica insurance, risk management, public finance and labour markets, and compensation and pensions, with both a US and international focus. She recently served on President Bush's Commission to Strengthen Social Security. Stephen P. Utkus is the Director of the Vanguard Center for Retirement Research, where he conducts and sponsors research on retirement savings and retirement benefits. His current reserach interests include attitudes and expectations regarding retirement, financial markets, and employer-sponsored retirement plans; the psychological and behavioral aspects of participant decision-making; trading and investment behavior among retirement plan participants; fiduciary issues arising from retirement programs; and global trends in public and private pension plans. Mr Utkus is a member of the advisory board of the Wharton Pension Research Council, and he is currently a Visiting Scholar at The Wharton School.