Pension Plans And Employee Performance

Chief economist for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and formerly with the U.S. Department of Labor, Richard A. Ippolito shows how pension plans can attract and retain more dedicated and productive workers. He also offers a blueprint for revising the social security plan with work incentives that would strengthen the system's financial condition.

Pension funds are big business. They are important to employers, employees, governments, and society at large. With the increasing concern over dwindling retirement pension fund crises, managing pension plans has never been more critical--and the pressure on those who are responsible for them has only intensified. Destined to become the classic resource on pension plan management, Managing Pension Plans explains everything you need to know for successful management of any pension plan--from how pension plans help sponsors manage their workforces to the latest in investment and risk management. With concise and practical Managing Pensions Plans is an indispensable resource for pension fund trustees, boards of directors, managers, and administrators of both public and private pension plans as well as for the money management firms, consultants, actuaries, and accountants who serve the pension fund industry. Logue and Rader, two of the world's leading experts on the subject, explain all the financial, legal, economic, accounting, and managerial issues that those who make pension fund decisions must juggle--in language that non-financial managers can understand, yet with sufficient depth to be useful to financial managers as well. The authors synthesize the latest in capital market and financial economics research to help those involved in pension management improve their decision-making in all the critical areas. In addition, the book describes in detail the responsibilities of fiduciaries, revealing how to be both a prudent fiduciary and a capable decision maker. Managing Pension Plans offers candid advice on how pension managers can improve fund performance by being more effective shareholders. As pension fund management and performance increasingly affect the success of organizations as a whole, this book will be indispensable to anyone--from fund analysts to board members-who influences pension fund decisions.

This book explores how rising pension and healthcare costs, along with workforce aging, are affecting pension and retirement planning around the world. Many middle-aged workers now realize that they will have to work longer than intended, as they begin to recognize that their retirement resources will be inadequate to finance retirement consumption. Volatile capital markets, rising medical-care costs, and low saving rates make retirement behavior and policy a moving target. Olivia Mitchell, executive director of The Pension Research Council at Wharton, and Robert L. Clark, Professor of Business Management and Economics at North Carolina State University, explore these themes with colleagues, touching on a diverse set of issues ranging from employment trends to pension accounting and investment, to retirement system overhaul. They illustrate how employers are actively reformulating the meaning of work and retirement, seeking to encourage more people to work longer than ever before in the face of projected labor shortages. At the same time, public and private trust in traditional pension offerings is rapidly eroding, as companies alter, amend, and terminate their conventional plans in the face of poor investment performance and new methods of pension accounting. Experts from the UK, the US, Japan, Sweden, and Canada offer international perspectives on the evolving institutions of retirement practice. This book provides readers a range of insights and strategies not available in other volumes, and it represents an invaluable addition to the PRC/OUP series. It will be particularly valuable for managers working toward more efficient pension plans; to scholars and policymakers seeking to maximize pension design and effectiveness; and to actuaries and tax specialists concerned with pension regulation. The Pension Research Council at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania was founded 50 years ago to encourage research and teaching on pensions and retirement security. Council projects address the long-term issues that underlie contemporary concerns and seek to broaden public understanding of these complex arrangements through research into their social, economic, legal, actuarial, and financial foundations of privately and publicly-provided benefits.

Cost-Effective Pension Planning

Countries around the world are increasingly relying on individual pension savings accounts to provide income in old age for their citizens. Although these funds have now been in place for several decades, their performance is usually measured using methods that are not meaningful in relation to this long-term objective. The recent global financial crisis has highlighted the need to develop better performance evaluation methods that are consistent with the retirement income objective of pension funds. Compiling research derived from a partnership among the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and three private partners, 'Evaluating the Financial Performance of Pension Funds' discusses the theoretical basis and key implementation issues related to the design of performance benchmarks based on life-cycle savings and investment principles. The book begins with an evaluation of the financial performance of funded pension systems using the standard mean variance framework. It then provides a discussion of the limitations inherent to applying these methods to pension funds and outlines the many other issues that should be addressed in developing more useful and meaningful performance measures through the formulation of pension-specific benchmark portfolios. Practical implementation issues are addressed through empirical examples of how such benchmarks could be developed. The book concludes with commentary and observations from several noted pension experts about the need for a new approach to performance measurement and the impact of the recent global financial crisis on pension funds.

The purpose of 'Pension & Retirement Plan Management: A Guide for Managers and Other Fiduciaries' is to provide reliable guidance for regulatory compliance, advice on managerial strategies, and some clarity on the underlying economics and finance of pension and retirement plans.

U.S. PENSION FUNDS are now worth more than $7 trillion, and many people believe that the most important task for the labor movement is to harness its share of this capital and develop strategies that will help, rather than hurt, workers and unions. Working Capital challenges money managers and today's labor movement by asking how worker's hard earned savings can be put to use in socially and economically progressive ways. Responsible management of pensions will create greater growth and prosperity in America, and the authors of Working Capital show that the long-term interests of pension plan beneficiaries are well served through a "worker-owners" view of the economy. This book builds on the work of the Heartland Forum supported by the United Steelworkers of America, the AFL-CIO's Center for Working Capital, and several foundations, including the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, to draw together the wisdom of a number of experts on labor's next best moves in the pension market.

This study examines whether pension plans achieved satisfactory investment results when compared to conventional market indexes. It also covers the impact of factors such as risk, turnover and investment allocation policy on performance. . . . Pension plan managers and accountants who audit or advise them will be most interested in obtaining this book, as will academics doing research on pension plan performance. Journal of Accountancy The authors argue that the principle causes of the poor performance record of pension plan investments are frequent portfolio reallocations and high turnover. They show that these twin strategies act more to incur unnecessary costs than to enhance profits. They proceed to develop a new concept for pension fund diversification, one that will achieve the goals the present strategies have failed to achieve. Must reading for pension fund executives, corporate money managers, and bank trust officers, this book is also a significant addition to the finance and investing curriculum.