Never has there been so much media interest in pensions as there is currently. Never has the pensions world changed so rapidly as it has over the last few years. This new edition of Pension Schemes and Pension Funds in the United Kingdom provides the latest information on all the key state and private pension schemes operating in the UK within the context of its long historical development since medieval times. It also examines government pensions policy over the last twenty years, and looks ahead to future trends and concerns.

Company pension funds can make important contributions to retirement income and to capital market development. But they need to be regulated and supervised to avoid fraud; protect the interests of workers, and minimize restrictions on labor mobility.

From the Wharton School, offering a comprehensive assessment of the political and financial dimensions of public-sector pensions from the colonial period until the emergence of modern retirement plans in the twentieth century.

The 2019 edition of Pensions at a Glance highlights the pension reforms undertaken by OECD countries over the last two years. Moreover, two special chapters focus on non-standard work and pensions in OECD countries, take stock of different approaches to organising pensions for non-standard workers in the OECD, discuss why non-standard work raises pension issues and suggest how pension settings could be improved.

'This collection of essays on a rapidly developing topic is a valuable addition to the field and the editors must be congratulated on beginning to bring the area to the attention of thinkers and government (not necessarily the same thing), who are charged with dealing with the challenge of controlling private pension provision.' - Robin Ellison, Pensions

The goal of Asset-Liability Management (ALM) of a Defined Benefit Pension Scheme (DB) is to properly manage the risks related to variation in its building blocks on both sides of the balance sheet whilst maintaining the same expected return. This book provides a step-by-step methodology to maximize the complete restructuring and monitoring of the ALM of DB schemes. It is a product of the author's 25 years of experience and technical knowledge in ALM of Pension Funds, portfolio management, investment banking and, specifically, more than 700 meetings with investment experts in the Pension Industry. It includes 400 figures and tables to help the reader make appropriate decisions and identify hidden tricks. It provides an in-depth understanding of how an Asset-Liability structure works, how to assess the efficiency of an investment strategy, and how to maximize the management of cash. Liabilities and Liability Driven Investment technics (LDI) are explained through numerous examples. The book shows the reader how to select the right LDI manager, and how to define a liability hedging strategy and monitor its efficiency. It demonstrates how to build efficient investment portfolios and select the appropriate asset classes, as well as how to build and monitor an efficient risks and performances report. In addition, it shows how the most common financial instruments work, their roles, the basics of statistics, and the principles of portfolio construction. Finally, it provides introduction to Buy-in, Buyout, and Longevity risk management.

Banking on Death offers a panoramic view of the history and future of pension provision. A work of unique scope, it traces the origins and development of the pension idea, from the days of the French Revolution to the troubles of the modern welfare state. As we live longer, employers are closing their pension schemes and many claim that public treasuries will not be able to cope with the retirement of the babyboomers. Banking on Death analyses the challenge facing public schemes and the malfunctioning of private retirement provision, concluding with a bold proposal for how to pay for decent pensions for all. Robin Blackburn argues that pension funds have been depleted by wasteful promotion and used as gambling chips by ruthless and overpaid top executives. This is the world of 'grey capitalism,' where employees' savings are sequestrated from them and pressed into the service of corporate aggrandisement. Even the best companies find it hard to run a business and a pension fund at the same time-especially when the latter is larger than the former. The fund managers' notorious short-termism and herd instinct, and their failure to curb the greed and irresponsibility of the corporate elite, lead to obscene inequalities and a blighted social landscape. The pension privatisation lobby, Blackburn shows, has lost major battles in France and Germany, the United States and Italy, because of the popular fears it evokes. And the case for privatisation looks intellectually threadbare after withering critiques from such notable theorists as Joseph Stiglitz and Pierre Bourdieu. Banking on Death shows that pensions are political dynamite, and have undone governments from France and Italy to Argentina. Popular outcries led Reagan, Clinton, and Blair to change tack: will this happen to George W. Bush too? Blackburn argues that the ageing society will generate increased costs but, so long as the new life course is properly financed, all age groups will gain. He proposes a public regime of asset-based welfare, drawing on the ideas of John Maynard Keynes and Rudolf Meidner, that could ensure secondary pensions for all and foster a more responsible, egalitarian and humane pattern of economic development.