The OECD Pensions Outlook provides an analysis of different pension policy issues in OECD member countries covering both public and private, defined benefit and defined contribution, pay-as-you-go and asset-backed retirement provisions. This sixth edition discusses how to introduce, develop, and strengthen asset-backed pension arrangements, the role that employers can play in their provision, and the implication of different fee structures on individuals saving for retirement and on providers. It also describes good practices for developing mortality tables and provides policy guidance on how to design, implement and continue the operation of non-guaranteed lifetime retirement income arrangements.

Policy makers should continue to strengthen pension systems. The current financial and economic uncertainty as well as the rising cost of living may lead policy makers, regulators and supervisors to postpone reforms that could improve their pension systems. However, delaying needed reforms would put at risk the well-being of current and future pensioners.

To help countries to improve asset-backed pension systems and build people’s trust that their best interest is considered, the present edition of the OECD Pensions Outlook provides a series of recommendations on how to introduce, develop and strengthen asset-backed pension arrangements, the role that employers can play in the development of these arrangements, how fees can be charged to protect retirement assets and align them with the cost of the services provided, how to ensure the appropriateness of mortality assumptions, and the design and introduction of non-guaranteed lifetime retirement income arrangements.

This chapter provides policy guidance on how best to develop asset-backed pension arrangements. It uses the experiences of OECD member countries to identify the key challenges and considerations ahead of introducing or reforming asset-backed pension arrangements, during the implementation phase of a reform, and when trying to maintain or strengthen existing asset-backed pension arrangements.

This chapter provides policy guidance on how best to involve employers in the provision of asset-backed pension arrangements. It analyses current employer involvement as well as employers’ motivations to be involved in the provision of asset-backed pension arrangements. The policy guidance aims at assisting countries to make the best use of the advantages of involving employers, while addressing to the extent possible the potential challenges associated with employer involvement.

This chapter analyses the implications of different fee structures on asset-backed pension arrangements for individuals and providers. It models different fee structures at the individual and aggregate levels, and assesses how they affect the assets accumulated by individuals and the revenues collected by providers. A sensitivity analysis shows the impact of various parameters. The chapter also looks at the impact for providers of a transition from a contribution-based fee to an asset-based fee.

This chapter presents a set of good practices that can serve as guidance to assist in the development and assessment of the standard mortality assumptions used for pensioners and annuitants in the context of the provision of retirement income.

This chapter presents policy lessons for each stage of development of non‑guaranteed lifetime retirement income arrangements, from their design and introduction, through to their implementation and continued operation, given experiences in different OECD member countries. Examples of these types of arrangements include Collective Defined Contribution schemes, Target Benefit schemes, and tontines, among others.