Economists warn of side effects of raising the retirement age

Leaving paid work opens the door to potentially the best stage of life, and a new study published in The Economic Journal confirms the health and well-being benefits that can stem from retirement via an individual's increased ...

What the climate movement gets wrong about disruption

The 1963 Civil Rights victory in Birmingham, Alabama paved the way for the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In their latest article, published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, UMass Amherst Associate Professor of History ...

Study explores how risk tolerance changes around payday

People living in poverty often struggle from payday to payday. Those who receive government assistance, such as welfare or pensions, must manage scarce resources to make ends meet until the next payment. Researchers from ...

Who decides what ESG is and how to make investments greener?

More than 30 US states have proposed or implemented legislation in recent years to stop the government and its pension funds from investing in environmental social and governance (ESG) funds. These products integrate ESG ...

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Pension

In general, a pension is an arrangement to provide people with an income when they are no longer earning a regular income from employment. Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is paid in regular installments, while the latter is paid in one lump sum.

The terms retirement plan or superannuation refer to a pension granted upon retirement. Retirement plans may be set up by employers, insurance companies, the government or other institutions such as employer associations or trade unions. Called retirement plans in the United States, they are commonly known as pension schemes in the United Kingdom and Ireland and superannuation plans or super in Australia and New Zealand. Retirement pensions are typically in the form of a guaranteed life annuity, thus insuring against the risk of longevity.

A pension created by an employer for the benefit of an employee is commonly referred to as an occupational or employer pension. Labor unions, the government, or other organizations may also fund pensions. Occupational pensions are a form of deferred compensation, usually advantageous to employee and employer for tax reasons. Many pensions also contain an additional insurance aspect, since they often will pay benefits to survivors or disabled beneficiaries. Other vehicles (certain lottery payouts, for example, or an annuity) may provide a similar stream of payments.

The common use of the term pension is to describe the payments a person receives upon retirement, usually under pre-determined legal and/or contractual terms. A recipient of a retirement pension is known as a pensioner or retiree.

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