IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jconsa/v53y2019i3p917-945.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Engagement with Retirement Savings: It Is a Matter of Trust

Author

Listed:
  • A. M. Jeanette Deetlefs
  • Hazel Bateman
  • Loretti I. Dobrescu
  • Ben R. Newell
  • Andreas Ortmann
  • Susan Thorp

Abstract

People who engage with their retirement savings are more likely to opt out of unsuitable defaults. We use cluster analysis of matched survey and administrative data to identify groups of pension plan members that are alike in their attitudes toward retirement saving. We find that engaged and disengaged members segregate into groups based on their interest and trust. Group membership in turn helps predict plan engagement, as proxied by nondefault choices. Specifically, engagement is stronger among interested groups. Trust, however, has a more complex relationship with engagement, particularly as it interacts with interest. While members with low interest and high trust are less likely to engage (e.g., by not checking plan performance), less trusting members engage more (e.g., by actively choosing asset allocations). As interest and trust successfully determine group membership, and ultimately engagement, pension plan providers should address members' diverse needs and circumstances with personalized approaches.

Suggested Citation

  • A. M. Jeanette Deetlefs & Hazel Bateman & Loretti I. Dobrescu & Ben R. Newell & Andreas Ortmann & Susan Thorp, 2019. "Engagement with Retirement Savings: It Is a Matter of Trust," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 917-945, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jconsa:v:53:y:2019:i:3:p:917-945
    DOI: 10.1111/joca.12208
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/joca.12208
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/joca.12208?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hoffmann, Arvid O.I. & Plotkina, Daria, 2020. "Why and when does financial information affect retirement planning intentions and which consumers are more likely to act on them?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 411-431.
    2. Geoffrey J Warren, 2022. "Design of comprehensive income products for retirement using utility functions," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 47(1), pages 105-134, February.
    3. Philip Maximilian Linhart & Olaf Stotz, 2022. "Which factors support trust in the recommendation process of pension products? Trust and pension products," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 27(4), pages 322-334, December.
    4. van Dalen, Hendrik P. & Henkens, Kène, 2023. "Trust in pension funds, or the importance of being financially sound," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(4), pages 658-669, October.
    5. Bateman, Hazel & Dobrescu, Loretti I. & Liu, Junhao & Newell, Ben R. & Thorp, Susan, 2023. "Determinants of early-access to retirement savings: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    6. van Dalen, Hendrik Peter & Henkens, K., 2023. "Trust in Pension Funds, Or the Importance of Being Financially Sound," Other publications TiSEM c19152f0-083d-4271-987e-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    7. Koh, Benedict S.K. & Mitchell, Olivia S. & Fong, Joelle H., 2021. "Trust and retirement preparedness: Evidence from Singapore," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).
    8. Sainsbury, Tristram & Breunig, Robert & Watson, Timothy, 2022. "COVID-19 Private Pension Withdrawals and Unemployment Tenures," IZA Discussion Papers 15399, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Peng, Xiaowen & Alpert, Karen & Hsu, Grace Chia-Man, 2020. "Switching between superannuation funds: Does performance and marketing matter?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jconsa:v:53:y:2019:i:3:p:917-945. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-0078 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.