IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/26406.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Money-Back Guarantees in Individual Retirement Accounts: Are They Good Policy?

Author

Listed:
  • Vanya Horneff
  • Daniel Liebler
  • Raimond Maurer
  • Olivia S. Mitchell

Abstract

Pension products embedding guarantees have been adopted worldwide, including in the Pan-European Personal Pension Products (PEPP) recently launched in the European Union. Using an economic life cycle model where investors have access to stocks, bonds, and tax-qualified retirement accounts, we show that abandoning the guarantee could enhance old-age consumption for over 75% of retirees without harming pre-retirement consumption. Life cycle funds offer an alternative for capital preservation, but they would produce lower average payouts. Investors averse to equity losses accumulate only moderately more in guaranteed accounts, as these offer only limited protection against market crashes.

Suggested Citation

  • Vanya Horneff & Daniel Liebler & Raimond Maurer & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2019. "Money-Back Guarantees in Individual Retirement Accounts: Are They Good Policy?," NBER Working Papers 26406, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26406
    Note: AG LS
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w26406.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Larry G. Epstein & Stanley E. Zin, 2013. "Substitution, risk aversion and the temporal behavior of consumption and asset returns: A theoretical framework," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 12, pages 207-239, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. Axel Börsch-Supan & Tabea Bucher-Koenen & Michela Coppola & Bettina Lamla, 2015. "Savings In Times Of Demographic Change: Lessons From The German Experience," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 807-829, September.
    3. Jingjing Chai & Wolfram Horneff & Raimond Maurer & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2011. "Optimal Portfolio Choice over the Life Cycle with Flexible Work, Endogenous Retirement, and Lifetime Payouts," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 15(4), pages 875-907.
    4. Nicola Fuchs-Schuendeln & Dirk Krueger & Mathias Sommer, 2010. "Inequality Trends for Germany in the Last Two Decades: A Tale of Two Countries," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 13(1), pages 103-132, January.
    5. Cocco, João F. & Gomes, Francisco J., 2012. "Longevity risk, retirement savings, and financial innovation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(3), pages 507-529.
    6. Andreas Hubener & Raimond Maurer & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2016. "How Family Status and Social Security Claiming Options Shape Optimal Life Cycle Portfolios," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(4), pages 937-978.
    7. Hans Fehr & Christian Habermann, 2008. "Risk Sharing and Efficiency Implications of Progressive Pension Arrangements," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 110(2), pages 419-443, June.
    8. Juan Carlos CóRdoba & Marla Ripoll, 2017. "Risk Aversion and the Value of Life," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 84(4), pages 1472-1509.
    9. Richard Hinz & Robert Holzmann & David Tuesta & Noriyuki Takayama, 2013. "Matching Contributions for Pensions : A Review of International Experience," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 11968.
    10. Joao F. Cocco, 2005. "Consumption and Portfolio Choice over the Life Cycle," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(2), pages 491-533.
    11. Börsch-Supan, Axel & Reil-Held, Anette & Schunk, Daniel, 2008. "Saving incentives, old-age provision and displacement effects: evidence from the recent German pension reform," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(3), pages 295-319, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Olivia S. Mitchell, 2020. "Building Better Retirement Systems in the Wake of the Global Pandemic," NBER Working Papers 27261, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Horneff, Vanya & Liebler, Daniel & Maurer, Raimond & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2019. "Implications of money-back guarantees for individual retirement accounts: Protection then and now," SAFE Working Paper Series 263, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    2. Raimond Maurer & Olivia S. Mitchell & Ralph Rogalla & Tatjana Schimetschek, 2021. "Optimal social security claiming behavior under lump sum incentives: Theory and evidence," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 88(1), pages 5-27, March.
    3. Francisco Gomes & Michael Haliassos & Tarun Ramadorai, 2021. "Household Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(3), pages 919-1000, September.
    4. Horneff, Vanya & Maurer, Raimond & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2020. "Putting the pension back in 401(k) retirement plans: Optimal versus default deferred longevity income annuities," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    5. Horneff, Vanya & Maurer, Raimond & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2018. "Putting the pension back in 401(k) retirement plans: Optimal versus default longevity income annuities," CFS Working Paper Series 607, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    6. Horneff, Vanya & Maurer, Raimond & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2023. "Do required minimum distribution 401(k) rules matter, and for whom? Insights from a lifecycle model," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    7. Blake, David & Wright, Douglas & Zhang, Yumeng, 2014. "Age-dependent investing: Optimal funding and investment strategies in defined contribution pension plans when members are rational life cycle financial planners," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 105-124.
    8. Peter Schober & Julian Valentin & Dirk Pflüger, 2022. "Solving High-Dimensional Dynamic Portfolio Choice Models with Hierarchical B-Splines on Sparse Grids," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 59(1), pages 185-224, January.
    9. Horneff, Vanya & Maurer, Raimond & Mitchell, Olivia S. & Rogalla, Ralph, 2015. "Optimal life cycle portfolio choice with variable annuities offering liquidity and investment downside protection," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 91-107.
    10. Horneff, Vanya & Maurer, Raimond & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2019. "How will persistent low expected returns shape household economic behavior?," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 612-622, October.
    11. Daniel Harenberg & Alexander Ludwig, 2019. "Idiosyncratic Risk, Aggregate Risk, And The Welfare Effects Of Social Security," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 60(2), pages 661-692, May.
    12. Horneff, Vanya & Maurer, Raimond & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2017. "How persistent low expected returns alter optimal life cycle saving, investment, and retirement behavior," SAFE Working Paper Series 190, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    13. Seth Neumuller & Casey Rothschild, 2017. "Financial Sophistication and Portfolio Choice over the Life Cycle," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 26, pages 243-262, October.
    14. Börsch-Supan, A. & Härtl, K. & Leite, D.N., 2016. "Social Security and Public Insurance," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 781-863, Elsevier.
    15. Vanya Horneff & Raimond Maurer & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2019. "How Would 401(k) ‘Rothification’ Alter Saving, Retirement Security, and Inequality?," Working Papers wp398, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    16. Schendel, Lorenz S., 2014. "Consumption-investment problems with stochastic mortality risk," SAFE Working Paper Series 43, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    17. Fabio C. Bagliano & Carolina Fugazza & Giovanna Nicodano, 2017. "A Life-Cycle Model with Unemployment Traps," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 514, Collegio Carlo Alberto, revised 2019.
      • Fabio C. Bagliano & Carolina Fugazza & Giovanna Nicodano, 2017. "A Life-Cycle Model with Unemployment Traps," Working papers 041, Department of Economics, Social Studies, Applied Mathematics and Statistics (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche), University of Torino.
    18. Kaschützke, B. & Maurer, R., 2016. "Investing and Portfolio Allocation for Retirement," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 567-608, Elsevier.
    19. Menoncin, Francesco & Regis, Luca, 2020. "Optimal life-cycle labour supply, consumption, and investment: The role of longevity-linked assets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    20. Kim, Hugh Hoikwang & Maurer, Raimond & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2016. "Time is money: Rational life cycle inertia and the delegation of investment management," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(2), pages 427-447.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G5 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance
    • G52 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Insurance

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26406. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.