OECD Pensions Outlook 2018
The 2018 edition of the OECD Pensions Outlook examines how pension systems are adapting to improve retirement outcomes. It focuses on designing funded pensions and assesses how different pension arrangements can be combined taking into account various policy objectives and risks involved in saving for retirement. It looks at how countries can improve the design of financial incentives, and presents policy guidelines on aligning charges and costs of providing funded pensions.
This edition also draws lessons from nationally significant investment institutions on strengthening the governance, investment policies and investment risk management of pension funds. It provides guidelines on improving retirement incomes considering behavioural biases and limited levels of financial knowledge, and discusses the implications of mortality differences on retirement incomes across different socioeconomic groups. Lastly, it examines whether survivor pensions are still needed.
Are survivor pensions still needed?
This chapter describes survivor pension schemes in OECD countries. It first documents expenditures on survivor pensions the number of recipients and the average level of benefits. It then provides details about eligibility rules and benefit determination across countries. The chapter includes a discussion of how survivor pensions have developed in the recent decades and whether these trends are related to the more general evolution of pension systems and the deep changes in socio‑economic environments. Simulations based on the OECD pension model estimate the impact of the survivor pensions on the financial situation of survivors, including how pension splitting can affect survivor pensions in OECD countries. Main results and key policy insights follow.
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