Lifetime investment and consumption using a defined-contribution pension scheme

During the accumulation phase of a defined-contribution pension scheme, a scheme member invests part of their stochastic income in a portfolio of a stock and a bond in order to build up sufficient funds for retirement. It is assumed that the remainder of their salary pre-retirement is consumed, an annuity is purchased at retirement, and the stock allocation and consumption pre-retirement maximise the total expected lifetime consumption using a CARA utility function. Perfect correlation between the scheme members income and the stock price leads to analytical expressions for the controls for a general income model. If the correlation is imperfect then analytical controls are found for two particular stochastic income models. (c) 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V.