The debate around annuity compulsion and proposed pension reforms provides an appropriate context for exploring consumer attitudes to annuitisation. A substantial sample of those approaching or just into retirement were polled as to willingness to annuitise and preferred timing. Questions...

Using a large database of complex securities, I study how salient attributes of security design distort household investment decisions. I show banks add non-standard (fine-print) conditions to artificially increase advertised rates of headline return and downside protection-a phenomenon I term...

With interest rates on fixed income investments hovering near historic lows, a growing cadre of retirement researchers has been sounding alarm bells regarding the unprecedented portfolio risk faced by consumers who are approaching retirement or recently retired. Their message is simple,...

Transaction costs impose a barrier to savings, but lowering them may have smaller impacts than expected due to other constraints, such as psychological biases. Within the context of retirement savings under defined contributions in the privatized pension system in Mexico, we analyze two...