Private pensions in Australia 1. System design 2. Issues Choice - - PDF document

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Private pensions in Australia 1. System design 2. Issues Choice - - PDF document

21/11/2012 Private pensions in Australia John Piggott Centre Director Private pensions in Australia 1. System design 2. Issues Choice and defaults Decumulation structures Administration costs Risk-sharing Adequacy


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Private pensions in Australia John Piggott Centre Director

Private pensions in Australia

  • 1. System design
  • 2. Issues
  • Choice and defaults
  • Decumulation structures
  • Administration costs
  • Risk-sharing
  • Adequacy
  • Sustainability
  • 3. Conclusion
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Safety net for adequacy purposes Compulsory saving for income replacement Voluntary saving for income replacement Universal Targeted Pay As You Go Funded Public provision Public provision Employment related Other Non tax preferred Private provision UK Basic and State Second Pension Tax preferred UK State Second Pension (contracted out) Private provision UK Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) UK occupational pensions (including new auto-enrolment)

System design

UK Guarantee Credit & Savings Credit Safety net for adequacy purposes Compulsory saving for income replacement Voluntary saving for income replacement Universal Targeted Pay As You Go Funded Public provision Public provision Employment related Other Non tax preferred Private provision Germany’s main earnings/points related pension Tax preferred Private provision Riester pensions Germany’s means- tested safety net

System design

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Safety net for adequacy purposes Compulsory saving for income replacement Voluntary saving for income replacement Universal Targeted Pay As You Go Funded Public provision Public provision Employment related Other Non tax preferred Australia’s Age Pension Private provision Australia’s Superannuation Guarantee Tax preferred Australia’s tax concessions for voluntary Super contributions Private provision

System design System design

20 40 60 80 100 120 140 Netherlands Iceland Switzerland Australia UK Finland Weighted avg United States Canada Chile Denmark Israel Ireland Simple avg Japan NZ Poland Mexico Slovak R. Spain Portugal Norway Czech R. Germany Estonia Austria Italy Korea Belgium Hungary Slovenia Turkey Luxembourg France Greece

Source: OECD (2012) Pension Markets in Focus No.9, September 2012

Total assets of private pension schemes (% of GDP), 2011

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AUS AUT BEL CAN CHL CZE DNK EST FIN FRA DEU GRC HUN ISL IRL ISR ITA JPN KOR LUX MEX NLD NZL NOR POL PRT SVK SVN ESP SWE CHE TUR GBR USA 20 40 60 80 100 120 20 40 60 80 100

System design

Source: OECD (2011) Pensions at a Glance, 2011; Note: assumes entry into labour market at age 20 in 2008 and full career with average earnings under 2008 parameters

Private schemes (%) Public schemes (%) Plus 2009 increase of public pension of 11% above wage- price growth Plus 2013-2019 increase of mandatory contribution of 33%, from 9 to 12% of earnings

Net replacement rates from public and mandatory private schemes, 2008 parameters

Plus pension age increase

  • f 2 years, from 65 to 67

by 2023

Issues

  • Choice and defaults
  • Decumulation structures
  • Administration costs
  • Risk-sharing
  • Adequacy
  • Sustainability
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Choice and defaults

Choice of fund legislation in 2005

Source: Cooper(2010) Super System Review

Lack of capacity Lack of price awareness Lack of interest Complexity Lack of comparability Frictions BUT SO Fund switching rates from 5% to 2% 2005 to 2009 (and anyway 80% because

  • f switching employers)

Past attempts to embrace market forces not very successful...

Lost funds

Recent reforms don’t seek to

  • verstate disengagement.

Facilitating not imposing choice....

  • MySuper

Choice Self Managed Super Funds

Choice and defaults

Example choice experiment 100% safe 50:50 100% risky 1a There is a 9 in 10 chance of a return between x and y 27 51 22 1b There is a 1 in 10 chance of a return outside x and y 31 48 21 2a There is a 1 in 20 chance of a return above y 16* 54 30 2b There is a 1 in 20 chance of a return below x 50* 35 15* 3a On average, positive returns occur z years in every 20 28 34* 38 3b On average, negative returns occur 20-z years in every 20 22 44 33 4a On average, returns above bank account occur w years in every 20 21 52 27 4b On average, returns below bank account occur 20-w years in every 20 33 41 26

Source: Bateman et al 2010

But for choices that remain: important what to present and how to present it

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Decumulation structures

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010

Proportion taken as a pension Proportion taken as a lump sum

Source: APRA (2005, 2012); Plan for life (2012) 1000 2000 3000 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010

ST annuities LT annuities Life annuities Superannuation pension benefits (% share) Annuities purchased ($ million, current)

Administration costs

Source: Cummings (2012) ‘Effect of fund size on the performance of Australian superannuation funds’; Note: 280 funds over the period from September 2004 to June 2010

3% 2% 1% 0%

  • 1%

0.8% 0.6% 0.4% 0.2% 0% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Log size 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Log size Not for profit Retail Not for profit Retail Investment expense (%pq) Operational expense (%pq)

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Administration costs

MySuper fund size/investment strategy $2b $5b $10b $20b Passive balanced 0.60% 0.46% 0.38% 0.32% Passive conservative 0.58% 0.45% 0.37% 0.32% Active balanced 0.94% 0.83% 0.70% 0.60% Active conservative 0.80% 0.70% 0.59% 0.49% Active balanced (with alternatives) 1.04% 0.89% 0.77% 0.66% Active conservative (with alternatives) 0.89% 0.76% 0.64% 0.54% Estimated total annual percentage costs for MySuper products of varying sizes (investment costs, plus operating costs and intra-fund advice)

Source: Cooper(2010) Super System Review

Risk-sharing

80% 60% 40% 20% 0% Projected Super assets and age pension entitlement

Australian Treasury (2010) ‘Intergenerational Report 2010’

Full pension (RHS) No pension (RHS) Total Australian Superannuation assets (LHS) 80% 96% 112% 128% 144% 2008 2015 2022 2029 2036 2043 2050 % of pop of pension age Assets as % of GDP

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Adequacy

20 40 60 80 100 120 140 Japan Germany Mexico Ireland USA UK Poland Slovak R. France Korea Canada Sweden Finland Italy Norway Portugal Estonia Chile Belgium Switzerland NZ OECD Spain Slovenia Australia Austria Czech R. Hungary Israel Luxembourg Netherlands Turkey Greece Denmark Iceland 50% of Average earnings For Average earnings Net replacement rates from mandatory schemes for different earnings profiles, 2008 parameters

Source: OECD (2011) Pensions at a Glance, 2011; Note: assumes entry into labour market at age 20 in 2008 and full career with average earnings under 2008 parameters

5 10 15 20 25 Mexico USA Australia Estonia Korea Canada Iceland Ireland NZ UK Switzerland Sweden Poland Slovakia Denmark Czech R. Netherlands Turkey OECD Germany Hungary Finland Norway Portugal Austrria France Belgium Italy Spain Slovania Luxemburg Greece 2009-10 2049-50

Sustainability

Public pension expenditure (% of GDP), 2010 and 2050

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Conclusion

1. System design different to most others 2. Issues

  • New choice architecture for accumulation
  • Still limited decumulation choice or defaults
  • Recent reforms to keep costs low
  • Risk-sharing though age pension & housing
  • Adequacy where it matters
  • Sustainability: third lowest pension

expenditure now and in 2050 (but endless battles about tax expenditure)

Email j.piggott@unsw.edu.au Web www.cepar.edu.au Twitter @cepar_research

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