Abstract: "The author studies annuity rates in Chile and relates them with industry competition. He finds (1) that annuity insurance companies paying higher broker commissions paid lower annuity rates; and (2) a structural break of the long-run elasticity of annuity rates to the risk-free rate in 2001. Moreover, this structural break coincided with the submission of a new draft pension law proposing greater transparency in annuity markets and a generalized drop in broker commissions. The high commissions charged in the 1990s were partly returned to annuitants as informal (and illegal) cash rebates. Myopic pensioners preferred cash rebates over present values. Thus, the legal threat caused the drop in broker commissions, reduced the illegal practice of cash rebates, increased competition by way of annuity rates, and raised the long-run elasticity to one."--World Bank web site.

"The author studies annuity rates in Chile and relates them with industry competition. He finds (1) that annuity insurance companies paying higher broker commissions paid lower annuity rates; and (2) a structural break of the long-run elasticity of annuity rates to the risk-free rate in 2001. Moreover, this structural break coincided with the submission of a new draft pension law proposing greater transparency in annuity markets and a generalized drop in broker commissions. The high commissions charged in the 1990s were partly returned to annuitants as informal (and illegal) cash rebates. Myopic pensioners preferred cash rebates over present values. Thus, the legal threat caused the drop in broker commissions, reduced the illegal practice of cash rebates, increased competition by way of annuity rates, and raised the long-run elasticity to one."--World Bank web site.

The Pension Crisis concerns the changing demographic profile of the economy: an increasing number of elderly persons supported by fewer young people. Governments around the world are responding to this impending crisis by shifting their pension policies away from pay-as-you-go systems towards individual savings schemes. These savings need to be converted into a pension at retirement, and annuities provide this function. This book is a comprehensive study of annuity markets. The book starts by outlining the context of public policy towards pensions, and explains the different types of annuities available, focusing on the UK which has the largest annuity market in the world. It examines how annuities are priced, and describes the techniques of mortality measurement. As a background, it provides a history of annuities, and the experience of annuity markets in a number of other countries. The book outlines the economic theory behind annuities, and explains how annuities insure consumers against longevity risks. It goes on to describes how annuities markets function: how they work, and whether they are efficient, leading onto a discussion of the annuity puzzle. The book concludes by discussing the regulatory framework, assets available to back annuity liabilities, and recent developments in annuity markets.

Developing Annuities Markets: The Experience of Chile is part of a multicountry World Bank project analyzing the market for retirement products. Among countries that have reformed their pension systems since the early 1990s, the Chilean case has emerged as the most relevant for drawing policy lessons on the role of the private sector in the provision of retirement income for two reasons: the depth, sophistication, and efficiency of the country's retirement products market, and the fact that this market was successfully developed from scratch by a middle-income country. The book examines in det.

In the 1990s many emerging economies in Central Europe and Latin America initiated their pension reforms. While most analysis to date has focused on the accumulation phase, there are a number of lessons to be shared as countries start to prepare the retirement options for their contributors, with this book addressing these issues from a public policy perspective.

Chile’s pension system came under close scrutiny in recent years. This paper takes stock of the adequacy of the system and highlights its challenges. Chile’s defined contribution system was quite influential when introduced, and was taken as an example by other countries. However, it is now delivering low replacement rates relative to OECD peers, as its parameters did not adapt over time to changing demographics and global returns, while informality persists in the labor market. In the absence of reforms, the system’s inability to deliver adequate outcomes for a large share of participants will continue to magnify, as demographic trends and low global interest rates will continue to reduce replacement rates. In addition, recent legislation allowing for pension savings withdrawals to counter the effects from the COVID-19 pandemic, is projected to further reduce replacement rates and increase fiscal costs. A substantial improvement in replacement rates is feasible, via a reform that raises contribution rates and the retirement age, coupled with policies that increases workers’ contribution density.

This paper analyzes the performance and development of the Mexican pension annuity market established as a consequence of the 1997 pension reform. The Mexican experience displays interesting characteristics providing lessons for other countries that still need to design the decumulation phase of their newly established second pillars. At the same, time it raises some technical and policy concerns that need addressing as they could hamper, in the future, the healthy development of the market. The paper concludes that: 1) general life insurance companies may better hedge longevity risk than specialized annuity companies; 2) competition should be based on prices rather than additional products; 3) better disclosure of options under the 1973 and 1997 social security laws should be given to disability and life annuitants; and 4) various measures should be taken to improve asset liability management including allowing companies to trade over the counter derivatives and substituting over time the regulatory asset liability management framework with an economic asset liability management framework.

Preliminary result of a continuing research project that analyzes annuity markets in various countries. The projects focused on understanding whether annuity markets can be relied upon to provide reliable retirement income at reasonable prices.

"Based primarily on papers delivered at Pension Reform in English-Speaking Caribbean Countries : an International Symposium and Policy Seminar, which was held June 4-6, 2003, at the Caribbean Development Bank's Conference Centre in Wildey, St. Michael, Barbados"--Acknowledgments.

"Empirical analyses of annuities markets have been limited to a few industrial countries and restricted by data limitations. Chile provides excellent conditions for research on annuities because of the depth of its market and the availability of data. The authors use a panel of life insurance company data to examine econometrically the main determinants of the annuity rate, defined as the internal rate of return on annuities. The results indicate that the annuity rate is determined by the risk-free interest rate, the share of privately-issued higher yield securities in the portfolio of providers as a proxy for the spread over the risk-free rate, the leverage of providers, the level of broker's commissions, the market share of individual providers, the level of the premium, and the degree of market competition. The results also show that efforts to improve market transparency produced structural shifts in the parameters of the annuity rate equation. The results are consistent with separate research on money's worth ratios, and indicate the need to develop appropriate financial instruments, allowing providers to hedge their risks while extracting higher returns, and also to ensure competition and transparency in annuities markets, in order to ensure good outcomes for annuitants. "--World Bank web site.