Errors Workers Make in Managing 401(k) Investments
by John Turner
Retirement Plan Trends: Where Are We
All Headed?
by Amy Stefancic
Many trends and their underlying pressures foster or hinder
the creation of adequate retirement income. Generally, these
trends fall into three categories: demographic issues, retirement
phase of life and changes in corporate approaches to retirement
plans. In an effort to facilitate everyone's participation in
creating more palatable retirement plan solutions, this article
describes how the trends within those three categories affect
retirement income adequacy.
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Reducing Retirement Income Risks: The
Role of Annuitization
by John Ameriks and Paul Yakoboski
Annuitization of defined contribution plan balances effectively
reduces a variety of retirement income risks faced by retirees.
This article reviews the changing role that insurance, especially
life annuities, plays in solving the retirement income problem
and the theoretical arguments and empirical studies showing
the importance of annuities. It then reviews reasons why annuities
are not more widely purchased by retirees and how policy makers
can encourage annuitization in order to ensure the long-term
financial security of future generations.
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Retirement Behavior
and Retirement Plan Designs: Strategies to Retain an Aging Workforce
by Janemarie Mulvey
Certain retirement and retiree health plan design features
trigger different retirement behaviors among top performers
and low performers and among workers of different wage levels.
However, previous research has revealed little of these effects.
Using a unique data set, this article shows how specific design
features affect workers' retirement behavior, allowing employers
to focus on those most likely to influence the most productive
workers to delay retirement.
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Caution! Accounting Changes Ahead!
by Jerrold Levy and Michael Young
Pension accounting in the United States has been the bane of
human resources and now-due to recent experience-the financial
stakes have been raised to a new level. This article addresses
a number of serious issues for the plan sponsor, including the
future of U.S. pension accounting, how accounting changes will
influence benefit policy, whether defined contribution plans
are a better retirement income vehicle and what plan sponsors
should do now.
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Taking Control of Your Retirement Program:
What Plan Sponsors
and Their Employees Can Do in Today's Economic
Environment
by Denise Faggella, Cyndi Gibson, William T. McClain and
Martha L. Tejera
Forces have converged to create "the perfect storm"
in the retirement world for employees, for employers, for the
government and for our society as a whole. The authors review
employee and employer reactions to recent changes and then explain
how plan sponsors can develop a successful approach to taking
control of their retirement program in today's economic environment.
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