Theme conference: Design of Pension Contracts in Incomplete Markets and under Uncertainty

Life-cycle funds are an increasingly important topic in discussions about retirement income, given the trend of moving from Defined Benefit (DB) to Defined Contribution (DC) pension plans. We have witnessed in recent years a rapid growth in the number of pension plans that offer life-cycle funds. Furthermore, the Dutch Social Economic Council (SER) has put forward reform proposals that suggest the creation of personal retirement accounts, combined with a collective risk-sharing component. Due to the sustained pressure on pension systems, many countries are considering a redesign of their pension system. In The Netherlands this discussion is currently ongoing on the basis of the SER proposal. However, the exact details still have to be hammered out in the coming years. Social partners recognize that the shift of risks to participants is challenging and are therefore in search for collective risk sharing solutions to mitigate the participants’ exposures.  In this kick-off conference we want to present recent insights from the academic literature and from the industry by the researchers involved in this theme.