Olivia S. Mitchell and Elizabeth Kennedy discuss implications of the treasury department’s decision to allow employers to pay out retirees’ pensions with a one-time lump sum payment, thus reversing Obama-era guidance that had banned this practice. Listen to the full piece above. Interview begins at 3:35. This segment originally aired…Read More
News and Media
Wharton’s Pension Research Council Celebrates its 65th Anniversary
The Pension Research Council is pleased to celebrate its 65th year of research and debate on key policy issues affecting pensions, social security, and other benefit plans. The PRC is known internationally for its interdisciplinary research on private pension and social security programs as well as related benefit plans in the United States and abroad. …Read More
Prof. Olivia S. Mitchell Discusses Work on Social Security Claiming
In an interview with NBER, Prof. Olivia S. Mitchell discusses her work (abstract below) done with Prof. Raimond Maurer of Goethe University Frankfurt on older peoples’ willingness to delay social security claiming.…Read More
The Growing Pension Black Hole is Pulling Us All In
Public and private pension sinkholes are showing up all over the country, and we’re tumbling in. In Pittsburgh earlier this month, benefit cuts of 30 percent were announced for 21,000 retirees from UPS and other shipping companies.…Read More
Book Review: “Financial Decision-Making and Retirement Security in an Aging World”
Retirees face a declining defined benefit system (DB), at the same time as the average age of the U.S. population is rising, and many people are financially illiterate. Mitchell et al. (2017) focuses on a critical topic that does not receive enough consideration when advisors develop and implement financial planning paradigms. The book recognizes the interaction of capabilities, context, and tolls and discusses the aging brain, the use of advice, and other options for achieving goals and policy.…Read More
New from the Pension Research Council: How Persistent Low Returns Will Shape Saving and Retirement
Financial market developments over the past decade have undermined what was once thought to be conventional wisdom about saving, investment, and retirement spending. How Persistent Low Returns Will Shape Saving and Retirement explores how the weak capital market performance predicted for the next several years will shape pension saving, investment, and decumulation plans.…Read More
Interview with Professor Olivia S. Mitchell
Dr. Olivia S. Mitchell of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School discussed her research interests, inspirations, and her views on the greatest challenges facing future retirees during an interview with Anita Mukherjee of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Read the entire article here, or in the Journal of the Economics…Read More
Making Retirement a Gig for Life
How prepared are gig workers for retirement, and how can older Singaporeans steer clear of financial mistakes? CREA researchers considered these questions at a roundtable on ageing and financial preparedness.…Read More
TIAA Institute and Pension Research Council Showcase New Research on Financial Decision-making
The TIAA Institute and the Pension Research Council (PRC) of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School released new research this month on the psychology, reasoning, biases and behavioral factors that affect how people make important financial and retirement decisions. The new studies – showcased during the TIAA Institute Fellows Symposium…Read More
Call for Proposals: Financial Wellness, Behavioral Insurance, and Retirement Planning
The TIAA Institute is partnering with the Wharton School’s Boettner Center/Pension Research Council at the University of Pennsylvania to fund innovative research related to older Americans financial wellness, behavioral insurance, and retirement planning. We are now accepting research proposals focused on this topic. Final funding decisions will be contingent upon continued funding…Read More