Innovations in Retirement Financing

Only half of working Americans admit they have thought about saving for retirement, and many of those who do try to save don't know whether they are setting aside enough. How, then, can employees, their employers, and the public sector boost old-age financial security? The contributors to this volume--economists, financial advisers, and housing and benefits specialists--argue that a strong retirement income system requires attention not only to assets conventionally dedicated to retirement purposes, such as pensions, but also to the broader determinants of retiree wealth including housing, health, longevity, and intellectual capital. This book proposes fresh approaches, including cash-balance pension plans, reverse-annuity mortgages, inflation-indexed bonds, and long-term care insurance. A framework chapter sets the stage by examining what retirement planning can be expected to accomplish and how planning reduces risks by hedging, insuring, and diversifying.

Olivia S. Mitchell is Executive Director of the Pension Research Council and International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans Professor of Insurance and Risk Management at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Zvi Bodie is Professor of Finance at Boston University. P. Brett Hammond is Manager of Corporate Projects at TIAA-CREF. Stephen Zeldes is Benjamin Rosen Professor of Economics and Finance at Columbia University.