95TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON TAXATION

THE RESPONSIBILITY TO SAVE AND CONTRIBUTE TOa pension is increasingly left to the indi-vidual worker. For example, many firms have shifted from defined benefit to defined con-tribution pensions, for which workers have to choose not only the amount of contributions but also how to allocate their pension wealth. The cur-rent debate on the privatization of Social Security considers putting individuals in charge of allocat-ing their Social Security wealth. There is little re-search, however, on the difficulties that people face in making decisions about pensions and savings and how they overcome the complexities of devis-ing saving plans. Many employers, in particular large ones, have started offering financial educa-tion to workers. There is mixed evidence, however, on the effectiveness of financial education in the workplace. In this paper, I use data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to examine workers ’ plan-ning activity toward retirement. I first study the determinants of planning and then examine whether employers ’ initiatives to reduce planning costs via retirement seminars have an effect on workers ’ sav-ings. I find that retirement seminars stimulate sav-ings, particularly for those at the bottom of the wealth distribution and those with low education