Table of Contents

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.

Over the past 25 years, defined contribution plans, including 401(k) plans, have become the most prevalent form of employer-sponsored retirement plan in the United States. The majority of assets held in these plans are invested in stocks and stock mutual funds, and the decline in the major stock market indices in 2008 greatly reduced the value of many families' retirement savings. The effect of stock market volatility on families' retirement savings is just one issue of concern to Congress with respect to defined contribution retirement plans. This book examines fee considerations and country comparisons relating to defined contribution plans for retirement with a focus on increasing access to employer-sponsored plans, raising participation and contribution rates, helping participants make better investment choices, requiring clearer disclosure of fees charged to plan participants, preserving retirement savings when workers face economic hardship or change jobs, and promoting life annuities as a source of retirement income.

Praise For The Retirement Plan Solution "Short, clear, complete, and always interesting. Best book on DC plans and what we should do-now." —Charles D. Ellis, author, Winning the Loser's Game "At a time when the world is in turmoil, along with retirement expectations, the authors have hit a home run. After reading this book, I have a plan. Read it for your path to retirement security." —Dallas Salisbury, President and CEO, Employee Benefit Research Institute "The Retirement Plan Solution offers a refreshing and provocative perspective on how to assess retirement needs, save to meet these needs, and manage the retirement payout process. In this time of financial turmoil, employees, plan sponsors, and financial advisors will find this highly practical resource volume both useful and humorous." —Olivia S. Mitchell, Director, Pension Research Council, Wharton School "The Retirement Plan Solution is a map to the future of 401(k) retirement plans. But it is not just a theoretical view of what could be. Instead, the authors describe the needs and trends that are already here, and then describe the changes that are developing to meet those needs. It is about the tomorrow that is happening today." —Fred Reish, Managing Director, Reish Luftman Reicher & Cohen "The respected authors have created a readable, timely, and very helpful book on all aspects of retirement planning. The suggestions are practical, the information is concise, and the book is highly recommended for anyone that is interested in sound financial planning." —Moshe A. Milevsky, PhD, Finance Professor, York University, Toronto, Canada "This is a must-read for people working in the retirement industry, as well as those who simply care about how to improve their chance of reaching a financially secure retirement. In a clear and simple fashion, the authors deliver one of the best books to date on inefficiencies in the current DC plan and potential improvements." —Peng Chen, President, Ibbotson Associates

Nonfinancial Defined Contribution (NDC) schemes are now in their teens. The new pension concept was born in the early 1990s, implemented from the mid-1990s in Italy, Latvia, Poland and Sweden, legislated most recently in Norway and Egypt and serves as inspiration for other reform countries. This innovative unfunded individual account scheme created high hopes at a time when the world seemed to have been locked into a stalemate between piecemeal reforms of ailing traditional defined benefit schemes and introducing pre-funded financial account schemes. The experiences and conceptual issues of NDC in its childhood were reviewed in a prior anthology (Holzmann and Palmer, 2006). This new anthology published in 2 volumes serves to review its adolescence and with the aim of contributing to a successful adulthood. Volume 1 on Progress, Lessons, Implementation includes a detailed analysis of the experience and the key policy lessons in the old and new pilot countries and the implementation of NDCs elements in other reform countries. This volume 2 on Gender, Politics, Financial Stability includes deeper and new analyses of these issues that found little or no attention in the 2006 publication. The gender perspective includes 5 chapters with, perhaps, the most complete discussion on gender and pension issues available to date. The financial stability perspective addresses in 6 chapters critical micro- and macroeconomic aspects such as the balancing mechanism, the use of a reserve fund, the handling of legacy costs, and technicalities related to the management of the longevity risk when designing annuities. While the 2 volumes address many issues it also opens a number of new questions for which good answers are not yet readily available.