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Florida's Pension Election: From DB to DC and Back

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  • Moshe A. Milevsky
  • S. David Promislow

Abstract

During the year 2002, the State of Florida's 600,000 public employees were given the choice of converting their traditional defined benefit (DB) pension plan into an individual‐account defined contribution (DC) plan with full control over asset allocation and investment decisions. To mitigate some of the risk and uncertainty in the decision, the State granted each employee electing the DC plan an additional option to switch back (i.e., change their mind once) at any point prior to retirement. This option has been labeled the 2nd election by the State and the cost of reentry is fixed at the accumulated benefit obligation of their pension entitlement, which is the present value of the life annuity. Our article presents some original analytic insights relating to the optimal time and financial value of this unique 2nd election. Although our model is deterministic in nature, we believe that it provides a number of intuitive insights that are quite robust. Our results can be contrasted with Lachance, Mitchell, and Smetters (2003). We estimate that the increase in retirement wealth that arises from having the 2nd election is equivalent to at most 30 percent in future value, and only when utilized optimally. Furthermore, for most State employees above the age of 45, the 2nd election has little economic value because the DB plan dominates the DC plan from day one. Of course, it remains to be seen what percent of Florida's 600,000 employees will elect to behave rationally with their newfound pension autonomy.

Suggested Citation

  • Moshe A. Milevsky & S. David Promislow, 2004. "Florida's Pension Election: From DB to DC and Back," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 71(3), pages 381-404, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jrinsu:v:71:y:2004:i:3:p:381-404
    DOI: 10.1111/j.0022-4367.2004.00095.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Moshe A. Milevsky & Keke Song, 2010. "Do Markets Like Frozen Defined Benefit Pensions? An Event Study," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 77(4), pages 893-909, December.
    2. Brown, Jeffrey R. & Weisbenner, Scott J., 2014. "Why do individuals choose defined contribution plans? Evidence from participants in a large public plan," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 35-46.
    3. Chao-Liang Chen, 2006. "The portable guarantee to exchange back an old defined benefit for a new defined contribution (DC) pension plan," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(6), pages 699-706.
    4. Gopi Shah Goda & Colleen Flaherty Manchester, 2013. "Incorporating Employee Heterogeneity into Default Rules for Retirement Plan Selection," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 48(1), pages 198-235.
    5. Clark, Robert L. & Hanson, Emma & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2016. "Lessons for public pensions from Utah's move to pension choice," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(3), pages 285-310, July.
    6. Habibah TOLOS & Peijie WANG & Miao ZHANG & Rory SHAND, 2014. "Retirement systems and pension reform: A Malaysian perspective," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 153(3), pages 489-502, September.
    7. M. Martin Boyer, 2018. "La gestion et le dépistage des risques liés au vieillissement, et le rôle des régimes de retraite dans le marché de l’assurance de soins de longue durée," CIRANO Project Reports 2018rp-03, CIRANO.
    8. Martin Boyer & Franca Glenzer, 2016. "Pensions, annuities, and long-term care insurance: On the impact of risk screening," Cahiers de recherche 1603, Chaire de recherche Industrielle Alliance sur les enjeux économiques des changements démographiques.
    9. Jacqueline Volkman Wise, 2013. "Pension Portfolio Choice and Peer Envy," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 80(2), pages 461-489, June.

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