Welfare Reform on the Web (May 2011): Pensions - overseas

Next generation individual account pension reforms in Latin America

B.E. Kritzer, S.J. Kay and T. Sinha

Social Security Bulletin, vol. 71, no.1, 2011, p. 35-76

By 2000, several countries in Latin America had followed Chile's lead in setting up individual retirement savings accounts intended to complement or replace defined benefit, state sponsored, pay-as-you-go systems. In recent years some countries have made significant revisions to their systems of individual accounts. This article describes and analyses major reforms in Chile, Mexico, Peru and Colombia. It focuses on key elements of reforms related to individual accounts, including system coverage, fees, competition, investment, the impact of gender on benefits, financial education, voluntary savings and payouts.