The challenges of providing ageing societies with a financially secure retirement are well known. In most countries, standards of living and healthcare advancements are allowing people to live longer. While this should be celebrated, the implications for the financial systems designed to meet retirement needs, which are already under severe strain in many nations, must be considered.

Besides increasing life expectancies and lower birth rates, additional factors are increasing the strain on global retirement systems such as lack of easy access to pensions, inadequate savings rates, long-term low growth environment and low levels of financial literacy.

This handbook presents 12 case studies on the approaches that governments, pension funds and companies have taken to address the challenges that their own retirement systems face. It highlights initiatives undertaken and lessons learned to guide those seeking future pension reforms. The handbook accompanies the white paper We’ll Live to 100 – How Can We Afford It?