AIG Rescued: Was an $85 Billion Loan the Right Answer?
After refusing to bail out Lehman Brothers, the government agreed to an $85 billion loan to insurance giant AIG, effectively taking over the company. Knowledge@Wharton talked to Wharton insurance...
View ArticleThe Fall of Pension Funds in Chile: A Lesson from the Downturn
In July 2007, the total savings of Chilean workers was US$104 billion, but that figure dropped sharply after the subprime crisis erupted and took down the stock market. Those who suffered the most...
View ArticleNot So Golden: Employees — and Employers — Feel the Pinch from Shortfalls in...
The golden years for most Americans appear increasingly threatened by the global financial crisis. Retirement accounts have lost from $2 trillion to $4 trillion as stocks have tumbled nearly 50% from...
View ArticleTata Group’s Farrokh Kavarana: ‘We Are Just Trying to Reclaim Our Legacy’
When insurance giant AIG ran into problems during the subprime mortgage crisis, how did that affect the company's two ventures with India's Tata Group? The impact was surprisingly small, according to...
View ArticleMicro Insurance: A Safety Net With Too Many Holes?
Unlike micro lending -- the better-known side of micro finance -- micro insurance has been a hard sell among the world's poor. The reasons why include a lack of understanding of how insurance products...
View ArticleMax New York Life’s Lesson in Insuring a Rural Foothold
India's insurers have been taking one of two routes. They either fulfill their legal requirements by simply pushing the same stable of products in rural India that they do in the more lucrative urban...
View ArticleNeeded, Now: New Approaches to Financing Old Age
Following the global financial crisis, troubled retirement systems around the world face new challenges that may result in sharply reduced income for retirees -- as well as the possibility that younger...
View ArticleBroken Promises: Can the World’s Stressed-out Pension Plans Be Rescued?
From Chicago to the Champs-Elysees, distressed retirement plans are coming under fire as they struggle to keep pace with projected payouts. Responses range from raising national retirement ages to...
View ArticleAn End to the ‘Golden Years’: Increasing Longevity Changes the Work-leisure...
People are working longer and retirement ages are rising everywhere as aging populations, broken nest eggs and distressed pension funds make staying in the workforce a growing necessity. The baby...
View ArticleAs Traditional Services Go Digital, India Post Finds New Life as an Insurance...
India Post, the Indian government's postal department, has one of the best distribution networks in the country; it is also one of the most underutilized. Many of its mainline businesses like personal...
View ArticleThe Mexican Pension System: Does a Real Crisis Exist?
Late last year, the Mexican mass media published news that set off alarm bells about the solvency of the country's pension system. Experts recently told Universia Knowledge@Wharton that although some...
View ArticleHigh Hopes, Low Profits: Foreign Life Insurers Rethink Their China Strategies
When China joined the World Trade Organization a decade ago, foreign insurance companies were full of hope. A liberalizing economy along with its large population and low level of insurance coverage...
View ArticleWith RSBY, India Tries to Curb the ‘Health-based Poverty Trap’
India's medical insurance initiative for the poor -- the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna -- was rolled out in 2008. Among other things, it provided hospitalization coverage of US$600. This is not the...
View ArticleLive Long and Prosper? Not If You Are Counting on a Healthy Pension Plan
Everyone knows that pension plans, both public and private, are in trouble -- not on life support yet, but definitely facing a host of difficulties, including a poor economy and changing demographics....
View ArticleThe Dangers of Blocking Medicaid Expansion
Some states are crippling new health insurance rules that would otherwise reduce health disparities between many uninsured minorities and young adults, and most other Americans. And, that will probably...
View ArticleIndia’s Insurance Sector Positions Itself as the Next Arena for Reform
The insurance sector in India is being spoken about as the new arena for radical reforms. The Manmohan Singh government has been promising more economic liberalization to follow the new norms for...
View ArticleNassim Nicholas Taleb on Accepting Uncertainty, Embracing Volatility
The defining characteristic of future change, according to Nassim Nicholas Taleb, is that it is impossible -- and foolhardy -- to try to predict it. Nonetheless, the dominant impulse among policymakers...
View ArticleSaving Social Security: Why New Proposals Are Drawing Fire
On April 10, President Barack Obama released his budget proposal for fiscal 2014, which included a controversial plan to change how Social Security benefits are calculated. Rather than using the...
View ArticleShould the U.S. Backstop Private Terrorism Risk Insurance – Forever?
In an opinion piece, Erwann Michel-Kerjan, managing director of Wharton's Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, discusses the need to extend government-funded terrorism risk insurance – but...
View ArticleWhy the Brazilian Insurance Market Hasn’t Taken Off
For foreign insurers, the Brazilian insurance market may at first seem like a mouthwatering opportunity. But the government’s cautious approach to the opening of the sector and market distortions are...
View ArticleA Tale of Two Storms: Rebuilding after the U.S. and Japanese Disasters
In the wake of major natural disasters in Japan and the U.S., some are questioning: Given the frequency of such devastating events, as well as the likelihood of a sea-level rise as a result of climate...
View ArticleMarketing Health Exchanges: Can Paul Bunyan and the Red Sox Help?
Technical glitches are less of a concern than educating consumers about the advantages of buying health insurance through an online exchange, according to Wharton experts.
View ArticleWhy Insurance Is the ‘Most Misunderstood Industry’
Two Wharton experts explain how the unique aspects of health care reform and flood insurance make it hard for consumers – and some insurers themselves – to understand the industry.
View ArticleBorrowing from the Future: 401(k) Loans and Their Consequences
In a new research paper, Wharton professor Olivia S. Mitchell analyzes the loans people take from their 401(k) pension plans, why they take these loans and what happens when these borrowers leave their...
View ArticleWhy You May Not Be as Ready for Retirement as You Think
A new book by Wharton's Richard Marston dispels some common beliefs about what Americans need to save for retirement.
View ArticleThe Financial Hurdles to Rebuilding Puerto Rico’s Economy
Puerto Rico faces perhaps the most significant financial hurdles of anywhere in the United States. Can the island turn its economy around?
View ArticleFinancial Inclusion in India: Moving Beyond Bank Accounts
A program in India to increase financial inclusion made rapid progress in opening bank accounts for underserved populations -- but it has also raised numerous questions about what still needs to be done.
View ArticleShared Risks, Shared Solutions: Finding the Leading Risk Expertise in an...
Risk management knowledge must be shared more broadly across the public and private sectors, and large and small enterprises.
View ArticleWhat’s Driving Health Insurers’ Merger Mania?
The new health care landscape is fueling consolidation for hospitals, physicians groups -- and now insurers. So who are the winners and losers?
View ArticleWhat the Social Security Squeeze Means for Retirees
Social Security beneficiaries face further squeezes, including on Medicare benefits. But retirees often are their own worst enemy when it comes to understanding how to maximize entitled benefits,...
View ArticleHeading Off a Retirement Crisis: TIAA-CREF’s CEO Weighs In
Americans are living longer, but they still are not saving enough for retirement and don’t know what to do about it. TIAA-CREF CEO Roger W. Ferguson Jr. recommends some paths forward.
View ArticleAetna’s Mark Bertolini: A New Definition of Success for Health Care
Aetna’s CEO speaks candidly about how his medical experiences gave him ideas about how to improve the U.S. health care system.
View ArticleAetna CEO Mark Bertolini on Leadership, Yoga and Fair Wages
Aetna’s CEO speaks candidly about improving the U.S. health care system, and reveals what Hinduism taught him about leadership.
View ArticleHow Two Rulings Are Removing Roadblocks from Impact Investing
The removal of two federal regulatory barriers last October is expected to further accelerate growth in impact investing. But some obstacles persist, including a need for basic awareness of the options...
View ArticleA Novel — and Painless — Way to Bolster Social Security’s Future
Social Security’s long-term prognosis is grim, and every solution that’s been suggested has been deeply unpopular with one faction or another. But Wharton’s Olivia Mitchell has found a partial remedy...
View ArticlePIMCO’s Former CEO Mohamed El-Erian on the ‘Delusion of Liquidity’
In a new book, former PIMCO CEO Mohamed El-Erian warns that accommodative central banks’ policies have created a “delusion of liquidity.”
View ArticleTo Save Wisely for Retirement, Sometimes Less Choice Is Best
When companies streamlined their retirement plans, employees took fewer risks, paid less in expenses and often increased the size of their return, Wharton research finds.
View ArticleWhat Ostriches Can Teach Us About Risk
A new book by Wharton professors Howard Kunreuther and Robert Meyer offers an innovative solution for addressing the biases that prevent people and groups from adequately preparing for disasters.
View ArticleCreating a Pension to Fit the Needs of the Rural Poor
Pensions are, in a sense, a necessary by-product of a rich economy. But what will it take to sell the idea to India's rural poor?
View ArticleRetirement Is Coming — Are You Ready?
With many baby-boomers closing in on the age at which they are required to take disbursements from their retirement accounts, more financial education is needed, says Wharton’s Olivia Mitchell.
View ArticleHow the CBO Report Will Impact the AHCA’s Fate
The CBO's report is in about the potential impacts of the American Health Care Act -- here's how the findings could impact Senate Republicans' version of the effort to repeal and replace Obamacare.
View ArticleHow a Lower 401(k) Cap Could Cause More Harm Than Good
As Republicans scramble to find revenue sources to fund tax cuts, Wharton experts warn against attempts to increase taxes on retirement savings.
View ArticleWant to Be in Control of Your Wealth? Unclutter Your Investments
The secret to gaining control over one’s finances is to first identify short-term and long-term goals and then align investments accordingly.
View ArticleCan A Growing Private Flood Insurance Market Close the Coverage Gap?
Flood insurance is more important than ever given forecasts for more serious flooding due to climate change. Yet only about a third of at-risk homeowners have coverage -- most all through the...
View ArticleThe Time Bomb Inside Public Pension Plans
There is a $4.4 Trillion shortfall hiding in plain sight inside public pension plans. Are we doomed to have it create a major financial crisis?
View ArticleWill Central Bank Policies Set off Another Global Financial Crisis?
Central bank policies since the financial crisis have been far too accommodating and are setting the stage for another big fall before long, according to a new book.
View ArticleLump-sum Pension Payments: Who Are the Winners and Losers?
Private corporations will cheer the U.S. Treasury department's move on lump-sum pension payments, but policy makers must weigh its impact on retirees and taxpayers.
View ArticleCan Annuities Help Grow Your Retirement Nest Egg?
New research from Wharton professor Olivia Mitchell looks at how annuities can help secure enough retirement income when the products are included in pension plan menus.
View ArticleHow Insurance Companies Are Coping with Digital Transformation
The insurance industry is facing its most profound disruption in decades. It is partnering with 'insurtech' startups to digitally transform, says RGAX CEO Dennis Barnes.
View ArticleWhat Are the Most Effective Ways to Insure and Mitigate Wildfire Risks?
Reducing future losses from wildfires requires communities to collaborate with insurers and policy makers, write Wharton’s Howard Kunreuther and Erin St. Peter in this opinion piece.
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