Private Pensions: Participants Need Information on Risks They Face in Management Pension Assets at and during Retirement

摘要

The decisions that retiring workers make about how and when to draw down their pension and retirement savings plan assets determine in part whether they will have pension income that lasts throughout retirement. Individuals are living longer on average once they retire and will need pension and other retirement income to sustain them over a longer period of time than in the past. Moreover, the continuing trend away from traditional defined benefit (DB) pension plans that can guarantee a stated level of income for life towards defined contribution (DC) plans with individual accounts has made participants more responsible for managing their pension assets during retirement. Increasingly, retirees have access to their pension and retirement savings plan assets and the flexibility to choose how and when to invest and draw down these assets.