For practitioners, the Cost-Average phenomenon is part of the basic knowledge concerning investment theory. The core effect lies within the possibility to achieve in average a lower acquisition cost compared to the average price of the stock or investment fund. With the regu-lar investment of...

The present paper examines the long-term risks of a representative one-time investment in German stocks (DAX/0) in real terms relative to various risk free investments (returns of 0%, 2% and 4% in real terms) as well as relative to a representative investment in German bonds (REXP). As...

The present study focuses on the defined financial benefits capital investors have undertaken to pay to their contracting parties during the withdrawal phase under contracts making provision for old age (also referred to as Riester contracts in Germany). The Alterszertifizierungsgesetz requires...

Retirees must draw down their accumulated assets in an orderly fashion, so as not to exhaust their funds too soon. We compare alternative phased withdrawal strategies to a life annuity benchmark using German data; one particular phased withdrawal rule seems attractive, as it offers relatively low...

Retirees must draw down their accumulated assets in an orderly fashion so as not to exhaust their funds too soon. We derive the optimal retirement portfolio from a menu that includes payout annuities as well as an investment allocation and a withdrawal strategy, assuming risk aversion,...

How might retirees consider deploying the retirement assets accumulated in a defined contribution pension plan? One possibility would be to purchase an immediate annuity. Another approach, called the “phased withdrawal” strategy in the literature, would have the retiree invest his funds and...

Retirees must draw down their accumulated assets in an orderly fashion so as not to exhaust their funds too soon. We derive the optimal retirement portfolio from a menu that includes payout annuities as well as an investment allocation and a withdrawal strategy, assuming risk aversion,...

This paper analyzes investment strategies in the context of alternative hybrid pension plans which are optimal either from the perspective of the plan sponsor or the beneficiaries. The focus is in particular on how the introduction of minimum and maximum limits for pension benefits as well as...

A Systematic Comparison of Pension Annuities and Self-Annuitization under the Criterion of Capital Exhaustion is presented. The present paper further develops the papers of Albrecht/Goebel (SFB 504 discussion paper 00-31) and Albrecht/Maurer (SFB 504 discussion paper 01-05). The new feature is...