The pension fund industry affects an enormous proportion of the world population and consists of more than $20 trillion of assets globally. Hence the performance of pension funds has major effects. This thesis investigates the performance of personal pension funds in the UK, one of the leading pension industries in the world. It identifies two important factors that are largely overlooked in the related literature: fund’s age and management outsourcing. Based on the ‘career concerns’ argument by Holmström (1999), it tests whether fund performance is age dependent, and in particular, whether funds perform better when they are young than when they ‘mature’. Moreover, one of the major features of the pension fund industry has been the enormous growth in management outsourcing. This thesis addresses this issue and tests whether there are differences in the performance between outsourced and internally managed funds, and investigates potential determinants of the decision to outsource. It argues that a ‘fashion to outsource’ may be partially responsible for the trend. Given that a CAPM-APT based analysis is not appropriate for the data at hand, the thesis employs three alternative performance measures, two of which utilise fund-specific benchmarks. The results show that risk-adjusted returns are statistically insignificantly different from zero but funds significantly outperform their benchmarks. Performance is found to change with fund’s age but this relationship is more complex than a simple ‘career-concern’ argument would predict. Risk-adjusted returns of the internally managed and the outsourced funds are both indifferent from zero but the outsourced funds are better at outperforming their benchmarks. Lastly, there is some evidence of a ‘fashion to outsource’. This research is novel in several ways. It provides the first detailed investigation of the performance of the UK personal pension funds. It is the first to address the question of potential factors (other than managerial characteristics) that may explain fund performance. It discusses the rise of outsourcing in the industry and analyses differences/similarities between performance of the outsourced and the internal funds. Finally, it is the first to investigate whether the rapid increase in outsourcing is due to ‘fashion’.

The shift to defined contribution plans from defined benefit plans have left future retirees concerned about having the necessary funds to retire. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how investment behaviors have changed due to losses in retirement accounts because of the global financial crisis of 2008. Building upon the conceptual framework of attribution theory and risk perception theory, this study explored what might encourage future retirees to use the stock market for retirement. A purposeful sample of 20 Hampton Roads, Virginia residents who held retirement accounts prior to the financial crisis of 2008 consented to interviews about their retirement planning. Through open coding of the interview data, themes emerged on the need for financial education and a fear of losing retirement savings. Increasing education regarding retirement accounts and reducing the fear of losing retirement savings encourages the use of the stock market in retirement planning. The findings suggested social change implications as future retirees increase use of retirement plans and reduce their reliance on public assistance programs.

Abstract not available

<p>A study on a Turkish Pension Company to find out customers' perception about services quality regarding to five dimensions in Rater model (reliablitity, assurance, tangibility, sympathy and responsiveness); from result of this study, the company can improve its services quality.</p>

No description available.

Hybrid pension plans offer employees the best features of both defined benefit and defined contribution plans. In this work, we consider the hybrid design offering a defined contribution benefit with a defined benefit guaranteed minimum underpin. This study applies the contingent claims approach to value the defined contribution benefit with a defined benefit guaranteed minimum underpin. The study shows that entry age, utility function parameters and the market price of risk each has a significant effect on the value of retirement benefits. We also consider risk management for this defined benefit underpin pension plan. Assuming fixed interest rates, and assuming that salaries can be treated as a tradable asset, contribution rates are developed for the Entry Age Normal (EAN), Projected Unit Credit(PUC), and Traditional Unit Credit (TUC) funding methods. For the EAN, the contribution rates are constant throughout the service period. However, the hedge parameters for this method are not tradable. For the accruals method, the individual contribution rates are not constant. For both the PUC and TUC, a delta hedge strategy is derived and explained. The analysis is extended to relax the tradable assumption for salaries, using the inflation as a partial hedge. Finally, methods for incorporating volatility reducingand risk management are considered.

Hybrid pension plans offer employees the best features of both defined benefit and defined contribution plans. In this work, we consider the hybrid design offering a defined contribution benefit with a defined benefit guaranteed minimum underpin. This study applies the contingent claims approach to value the defined contribution benefit with a defined benefit guaranteed minimum underpin. The study shows that entry age, utility function parameters and the market price of risk each has a significant effect on the value of retirement benefits. We also consider risk management for this defined benefit underpin pension plan. Assuming fixed interest rates, and assuming that salaries can be treated as a tradable asset, contribution rates are developed for the Entry Age Normal (EAN), Projected Unit Credit(PUC), and Traditional Unit Credit (TUC) funding methods. For the EAN, the contribution rates are constant throughout the service period. However, the hedge parameters for this method are not tradable. For the accruals method, the individual contribution rates are not constant. For both the PUC and TUC, a delta hedge strategy is derived and explained. The analysis is extended to relax the tradable assumption for salaries, using the inflation as a partial hedge. Finally, methods for incorporating volatility reducingand risk management are considered.

No description available.

The retirement system for teachers is a return and guarantee educators earn after they have devoted their life to educating young people and retire. The law governing the retirement of school teachers and employees was promulgated by the government in June 1944, in which the government alone paid for the pension for the retirees. In response to the times and changes in social and economic conditions, the law has been revised from time to time and some matching measures have been implemented. In 1995, a retirement system of reserve deposit was adopted, in which the government and teachers should jointly share the burden, indicating that the economic environment had deteriorated and government finance became less desirable. In analyzing the changes in the retirement system for teachers, we have summarized some problems of the retirement system for teachers. Research findings: Only government employees, teachers, military personnel and concerned government agencies join in policy discussions over the retirement system for teachers, which is a policy unique to a closed social environment and lacks a process of public deliberations. As the distributor of benefits, the country should take care of the needs of all walks of society. The country should not make every effort only to increase the benefits for retired government employees, military personnel, and teachers, motivated by vote consideration, at the sacrifice of social equality and justice. The current ¡§Law of Retirement of School Teachers and Employees¡¨ is contradictory to the ¡§Law on Teachers¡¨ promulgated in 1995. The selective value of the government is contradictory to the universality of equality and justice. The premeditated concept of the system deprives teachers of their free will to retire. For the present, 8%-12% of a teacher¡¦s twice base salary is deposited as the retiring fund. In a few years, the fund will be depleted and debts will incur as a consequence. Sustainable operation will be impossible, which is contradictory to the self-sufficient principle of retiring fund deposits. The study came up with the suggestions: relevant legislation, separation of government service and teaching, the retirement system for teachers should be revised so as to agree to the Law of Teacher promulgated in 1995, getting rid of the outdated thinking of government service and teaching as a whole, distinguishing the personnel management system for government service and teaching which are different; integrating the current disorganized retirement payment system so as to plan according to the three-tier retiring payment system put forth by the World Bank in establishing an economic guarantee system for elder people. At the first tier, the government offers subsidy and insurance to achieve the compulsory public retiring allowance plan that is aimed to redistribute the income and eliminate poverty. The second tier refers to the system in which the trade guarantees the retiring allowance of employees, i.e. the ¡§trade annuity.¡¨ The government compels the employers of each trade to provide the retiring allowance for their employees and prepare the retiring allowance for employees through appropriation and savings. The third tier refers to spontaneous personal savings and investment behaviors for retirement finance.

To numerous laborer friends, pension fund is an important foundation which they rely heavily on for living after retirement. Since the start of the new pension fund system, management and manipulation of the fund becomes rather important. This article mainly focuses on the study of explicit delegation for designated management of the pension fund. It refers to relevant standards and probes to see if the management conforms to the requirement of the Constitution based on an explicit principle. Furthermore, it attempts to find out the similarities and dissimilarities between the two systems for law requirement on delegation for designated management. It also looks into the current delegation system to identify existing problems, and whether these problems such as deputy, systematic, and information opaque problems, are the causes of occurrence of unidentified problems. In addition, what is the standard of explicit delegation? What is the clear definition of contents, purpose, and scope of laws and regulations? Why information needed to be made known to the public? How delegation for designated management of the pension fund should be to correspond to the principle of explicit? What will be the consequences if principle of explicit is not corresponded with? These are the questions to be studied and discussed in this paper. This paper refers to and reviews the current operation modes of the United States, Singapore, and Hong Kong, hoping to gain experiences from these countries, and to take the experiences as a reference for Taiwan¡¦s implementation of the system. In conclusion, this paper provides a possible way of pension fund management based on the following premises: 1. establish a clear and definite achievements index system, 2. public information periodically, 3. set up mutual indemnity fund, 4. free selection and free switch, 5. issue index fund for laborers to choose.