Hernán Pérez Raffo will share his perspectives on the strengths of Argentina’s current retirement system, along with the areas that present the greatest problems as well as the areas of opportunity - particularly in respect to promoting a voluntary savings scheme. He will also explore where new opportunities for capital formation could come from, discuss what role life insurers will need to take on in creating products that complement what currently exists, and identify which of Argentina’s current regulations will affect the country’s ability to create a mutually beneficial situation for all participants.

This country overview of Brazil’s current retirement and pension system will highlight key activities and reforms from the past 20 years, as well as where the country is now and where it plans to go in the future. The discussion will explain the different treatment of personal life insurance products (PGBLs) and supplementary pension plans (VGBLs), as well an overview of how recent legislation might affect the future of the Public Pension System.

States and employers have a vested interest in helping people save for retirement. Global trends, including the decline of defined benefit pension plans and increases in longevity mean that people need to take more responsibility for their retirement saving. The defined contribution plan is one important way to do this. This presentation will focus on the defined contribution system in the U.S. and share information on usage and attitudes toward these plans, savings and investing behavior in them, and some lessons learned from the U.S. experience. It will also look at how well these plans are helping people achieve retirement security in the U.S. and elsewhere.

The reform of the pension system in Mexico raised a paradigm shift for Mexican workers, placing a greater emphasis on self-responsibility for building retirement assets. This presentation will focus the actions that were taken to raise the awareness of workers, modify their behavior and expectations, and overcome the challenges that stood in the way of achieving this important goal.

Drawing on his experiences as a senior member of the Board of the International Center for Pension Reform (an independent think-tank, www.josepinera.org, that promotes the Chilean Pension Reform Model of individual retirement accounts), Carlos Gómez will deliver an overview of Chile’s current retirement system.  Key areas of the presentation will include lessons learned from mandatory defined contribution plans, and how Chile successfully accumulated and invested large amounts of capital (US $ 220 billion, 80% of Chile's GDP) that fund managers invested in the expansion and modernization of companies in both Chile and abroad. (at an average annual real rate of return of 8.25% in 36 years.) Together with other free market reforms, the introduction of individual savings accounts are making Chile the first Latin American country to achieve development.  

 Latin American countries are going through a stage of demographic transition that has created a window of opportunity to prepare for the next stage of "aging". This session will analyze the challenges and opportunities associated with these stages, from a perspective of economic growth, savings, development of capital markets.  It will also look at the potential change in demand for retirement insurance, based on fluctuations of participation by variou segments of the population.

When it comes to retirement planning, getting consumers to take action can be hard. Uncertainty, doubt, and complexity are all obstacles to engagement. This session will look at best practices and tactics to educate consumers and promote “financial literacy” – thereby motivating them to take action. Information on the trends and spending habits of today’s consumer, and what we can expect to see from the consumer of the future (millenials) will also be shared.

This presentation will discuss the impact that Private capitalization systems have on Capital markets, and will analyze the contributions relative to other Institutional Investors and the original markets. It will also demonstrate how long term investments are made possible and can help to develop new financial instruments, while at the same time helping to diminish the impact of external shocks.

This panel of executives will reflect on presentations from the previous two days, examining how demographics, technology and regulation are reshaping the retirement income planning landscape. Panelists will share their views on where the greatest opportunities lie, and then draw conclusions on how to bridge the gap between current problems and the desired future. They will also discuss their perspectives on where the greatest opportunities to develop within their markets will be, how a voluntary savings scheme can be successfully implemented in Argentina, and help answer the question “Where do we go from here?”