articles 11 to 25 of 55
Fantasy Sports: The Players, the Platforms and the Profits
According to some industry estimates, fantasy sports is now a $4 billion industry and growing quickly. What is fantasy sports, who provides fantasy sports platforms, what are the most popular fantasy sports, and -- coming off the Indianapolis Colts' recent Super Bowl win -- can we assume there will be a Super Bowl for fantasy football, or for baseball, basketball or hockey? Knowledge@Wharton asked Kent Smetters, professor of insurance and risk management, to bring us up to speed on the future of this industry.
From: February 07, 2007
How Can Employers Improve Defined Contribution Plans?
If 401(k)s and similar plans are the main way Americans invest for retirement, how can employers improve them? By making enrollment automatic, minimizing the use of the employer's stock, expanding the role of annuities and improving employees' financial knowledge, according to a set of recommendations issued by the Financial Economists Roundtable, a group of about 50 prominent economists, including several Wharton faculty members.
From: October 18, 2006
Strategies for Dealing with the Risks of 9/11, Katrina and Other Disasters: A Conversation with Wharton Experts
In the five years since the attacks on September 11, 2001, Howard Kunreuther, Wharton professor of operations and information management, has collaborated with members of the private and public sectors to determine how individuals and firms can be motivated to enhance security in our interconnected world. In a new book titled, Seeds of Disaster, Roots of Response: How Private Action Can Reduce Public Vulnerability, Kunreuther and other contributors argue that the United States will continue to be at risk for low-probability, high-consequence events like 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina until the private sector and public leadership develop strategies to persuade individuals and firms to invest in cost-effective protective measures. The book is edited by Erwann Michel-Kerjan, managing director of Wharton's Center for Risk Management and Decision Processes, and three others.
From: September 27, 2006
Longer Lives and the 'Lump-Sum Illusion' Are Just Two of the Challenges Retiring Baby-Boomers Face
In the United States alone, an unprecedented 77 million baby-boomers will be living the next 20 to 30 years in retirement. With long lives ahead of them -- and without adequate planning -- what are the risks they are facing? According to Olivia Mitchell, Wharton professor of insurance and risk management, and Christopher "Kip" Condron, president and CEO of AXA Financial, the world's largest financial services firm, the rising tide of boomers in the U.S. and around the world needs to meet challenges that previous generations never faced, including changes to key retirement institutions, as well as medical-care cost inflation and the "lump-sum illusion." Knowledge@Wharton spoke with Mitchell and Condron about how the financial services industry is working to meet the needs of this next wave of retirees.
From: July 26, 2006
Hands-off: Holders of 401(k) Retirement Accounts Are Not Your Typical Investors
With $2.5 trillion invested in 401(k) retirement accounts, 60 million Americans control a powerful chunk of cash. So how much attention do investors pay to this vast pool of savings? Not much. According to a new Wharton analysis of retirement accounts managed by The Vanguard Group in 2003 and 2004, participants in 401(k) plans made little effort to tend their defined-contribution plans once they were set up. Even among those who did trade regularly, turnover rates were one-third those of professional money managers. Olivia S. Mitchell, executive director of Wharton's Pension Research Council, Stephen P. Utkus, principal, Vanguard Center for Retirement Research, and researchers Gary Mottola and Takeshi Yamaguchi present their findings in a paper entitled, "The Inattentive Participant: Portfolio Trading Behavior in 401(k) Plans."
From: March 08, 2006
Unlike Death and Taxes, Pensions Are No Longer Guaranteed
IBM. Verizon. Sears. Hewlett-Packard. Motorola. The list of corporations that have put a halt to guaranteed pension plans comes as a jolt to Baby Boom employees entering what they thought would be their peak pension-building years. At the same time, new accounting rules and Congressional legislation are being drafted to close the U.S. pension-funding gap, now estimated at $450 billion. While some proposals under discussion could make it easier for companies to discontinue defined-benefit plans, others would create incentives to support defined-contribution programs, such as 401(k) plans, according to Wharton faculty and pension experts. Amid all this flux, they add, one thing seems certain: Pension plans have become risky business.
From: February 08, 2006
Are Eliot Spitzer's Insurance Lawsuits Hitting the Wrong Targets?
On September 15, New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer indicted eight former executives from Marsh & McLennan Companies -- Marsh itself was not charged -- for their part in an alleged bid-rigging scheme. For Spitzer, bid-rigging is just part of the problem with the insurance industry. He says that another practice, contingent commissions, also artificially inflates the price of commercial insurance and therefore should no longer be allowed. Yet according to Wharton professor J. David Cummins, "contingent commissions can help keep property-casualty and other markets efficient," and may "actually level the playing field by giving buyers and sellers equal access to vital market information."
From: October 19, 2005
How Well Has Chile's Retirement Program Aged?
Viewed as one of the world's most innovative pension systems when it was created a quarter century ago, the Chilean retirement program is receiving new scrutiny as participants begin to reach retirement age, and President Bush promotes elements of the plan as a way to reform Social Security in the United States. An upcoming Presidential election in Chile has prompted additional debate about whether the Chilean system provides enough coverage to prevent old-age poverty, according to Olivia Mitchell, Wharton professor of risk management, who recently led a panel entitled, "Exporting the Pension Revolution: Chile and Beyond," at the Wharton Global Alumni Forum in Santiago.
From: September 07, 2005
The Financial Risks of Terrorism: Balancing Public and Private Roles
Who should pay for the economic consequences of a terrorist attack in the United States? This week, the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center publishes TRIA and Beyond, an analysis of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 (TRIA), which will expire December 31, 2005, if not renewed. The Risk Center's report offers policymakers, key industry representatives and other interested parties an analysis of what roles the public and private sectors should play with respect to terrorism risk coverage in the United States.
From: September 07, 2005
Insurance, Life Expectancy and the Cost of Firearm Deaths in the U.S.
While the U.S. operates the most expensive health care system in the world, its citizens are neither healthier nor live longer than citizens in other countries. In addition, while the U.S. is considered among the safest countries in the world, deaths from gunshot wounds are staggeringly high. In 2000, the U.S. recorded close to 11,000 firearm homicides. The European Union reported fewer than 1,300 firearm homicides for the same year. In Japan, the number was 22. Jean Lemaire, professor of insurance and actuarial science at Wharton, argues that these facts should be looked at in tandem. In a recent paper, Lemaire works through the medical and financial impact of firearms on American society.
From: June 15, 2005
Retirement Programs Face an "Aging-Population Tsunami"
Against the backdrop of rising concerns over both public and private pension systems in the U.S., industry experts convened at a recent Wharton conference to debate ways in which retirement programs can be better managed. Participants discussed such topics as the problems facing Social Security, the solvency of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., and the consequences of an increase in defined contribution plans like 401(k)s along with a corresponding decline in defined benefit plans. The conference was titled "The Evolution of Risk and Reward Sharing in Retirement."
From: June 01, 2005
Can AIG Stay on Top?
To the lengthening list of fallen executives, add one more: Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, legendary CEO of American International Group, was forced to step down March 14 as investigators look at whether the company used complex insurance transactions to improperly pad its bottom line. Greenberg's departure, after a four-decade reign that turned AIG from a sleepy also-ran into the world's biggest insurer, immediately raises questions about whether the company can stay on top -- or whether shareholders will suffer, as they have in so many corporate scandals.
From: June 01, 2005
Accounting for the Abuses at AIG
When accounting problems at American International Group surfaced last winter, it looked like a small matter next to the corporation-busting scandals of the Enron era. But AIG directors acted as if the company's very survival was at stake, removing Maurice Greenberg as CEO and later forcing him to step down as chairman. The heart of the problem is this: No one can be sure how big the scandal will grow, because it involves business relationships, insurance products and accounting practices so arcane that few people understand them -- including a controversial product known as "finite insurance."
From: April 20, 2005
Catastrophe Modeling: A New Approach to Managing Risk
Before Hurricane Hugo swept through parts of the southern U.S. in 1989, the insurance industry had never suffered a loss of more than $1 billion from a single disaster. Since then, numerous catastrophes have exceeded that figure, even as development in danger zones continues to increase. It's a trend that emphasizes, as never before, the need to manage risk on both a national and a global scale. "People today are asking the question, 'How do we scientifically evaluate catastrophic risk?'" says Wharton's Howard Kunreuther, co-author -- along with Patricia Grossi -- of Catastrophe Modeling: A New Approach to Managing Risk. The book analyzes the role of catastrophe modeling in developing risk management strategies to help reduce losses from future disasters, ranging from floods and hurricanes to environmental damage and terrorism.
From: April 06, 2005
Older Workers: Untapped Assets for Creating Value
The days when an executive could look forward to a leisurely retirement out on the golf course are over, thanks to a possible looming job shortage, a graying population, low savings rates and an insecure Social Security system. The impact of these factors on both workers and companies was the subject of the Symposium on Older Workers, co-sponsored recently by the AARP Global Aging Program along with Wharton's Center for Human Resources and Boettner Center for Pensions and Retirement Research. Speakers included AARP CEO William D. Novelli, Olivia Mitchell, executive director of Wharton's Pension Research Council, and Thomas Dowd, a deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Labor.
From: February 09, 2005
