Pension Research Council: Conferences

Conferences

The Pension Research Council sponsors research conferences on topics of timely interest to members. Topics span the range of private and public retirement programs around the world. Themes are suggested by the Advisory Board, and members have the opportunity to explore the social, economic, legal, actuarial, and financial implications of research developments for retirement security.

Past Conferences and Symposia

2008 Symposium: The Future of Public Employee Retirement Systems
May 1-2, 2008
This event examined the challenges facing public retirement systems in the US and around the world. After tracing the evolution of public sector pensions and retiree health programs, the discussion compared public with private sector pay and benefits. Next the speakers took up public policy concerns regarding accounting and management in public employee plans in the United States, focusing on ways to properly measure liabilities and how to make the plans more cost effective. The discussion also included analysis of defined contribution versus defined benefit plans for the public sector, and funding of federal retirement systems, both civilian and military. International lessons were brought to bear with a dsicussion of reforms in the German, the Japanese, and the Canadian public employee plans. This conference was a Wharton Impact Conference sponsored by the Wharton School's Pension Research Council and Boettner Center for Pensions and Retirement Research.

The conference was co-hosted by Gary Anderson and Olivia S. Mitchell at The Wharton School.
2007 Symposium: Managing Retirement Payouts: Positioning, Investing, and Spending Assets
April 23-24, 2007
This event highlighted emerging issues regarding assets and expectations on the verge of retirement, including uncertainty regarding life expectancy and morbidity. Analysts explored retirement asset positioning and location, phasing of spending patterns, and debt as well as housing consumption in later life. Financial advisers and academics debated ways to effectively manage assets in retirement, including the role of advice engines and tax challenges. Lawyers and policy experts evaluated regulation for the retirement payout marketplace, along with long-term care insurance. The conference was co-hosted by John Ameriks and Olivia Mitchell at The Wharton School.
2006 Symposium: Transitioning to Retirement: How Will Boomers Fare?
April 24-25, 2006
Presenters at this conference draw on new microeconomic panel datasets including the Health and Retirement Study to evaluate how well Baby Boomers compare with prior cohorts, in terms of their preparedness for retirement. Papers will examine financial, health, and social capital of Boomers on the verge of retirement, with similar measures of wellbeing or shortfalls for previous cohorts.
View agenda.
2005 Symposium: The Evolution of Risk and Reward Sharing in Retirement
Retirement systems unavoidably balance a variety of economic and political risks, including capital market and mortality shocks, firm bankruptcy risks, funding changes, and policy shifts. These are in turn reapportioned among various stakeholders. This conference will analyze how recent changes in risk and reward patterns are being shared among the parties to private and public retirement systems. Our goal is to assess how these risk sharing arrangements are evolving and should continue to change in the future.
View agenda and download presentations.
2004 Symposium: Reinventing the Retirement Paradigm
This symposium focused on pension policy and changes needed to support development of pensions in the coming years as we move toward the retirement of the baby boom cohort. Participants examined recent trends in retirement patterns and draw implications for the future of retirement. This symposium marked both the 30th Anniversary of ERISA and the 50th Anniversary of the Pension Research Council.
View agenda and download presentations.
Lessons from Pension Reform in the Americas
March 2-3, 2006