An accumulation phase simulation for pension funds

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to propose a pension fund accumulation phase simulation and analysis focusing on the Turkish Private Pension System. For this purpose after analyzing the historical progress of global and local private pension systems and the Turkish Capital Markets in detail we apply some sophisticated techniques like Markov Chains and Monte Carlo Simulations on some selected financial instruments to perform our analyses. Globally private pension systems have a significant share in developed market economies and there is a broad academical research related to private pension systems and pension funds mostly focusing on the funding structures asset liability management strategies portfolio allocations and performances and on the shifts from Defined Benefit (DB) plans to Defined Contribution (DC) plans. in Turkey Private Pension System is growing rapidly since it's inception but the share of private pension funds relative to the size of the economy is low compared to other OECD countries. The number of researches about Turkish Private Pension System is rather scarce mostly concentrating on operational structures regulations and historical fund performances. Our contributions to the matters mentioned above are fivefold: ANewPerspective: We provide an extensive pension fund accumulation phase simulation method by applying Markov Chains and Monte Carlo Simulation techniques to financial instrument returns that to our knowledge has never been done before on the Turkish Pension Funds sector. Analysis: We discuss some policy proposals on the fees portfolio allocation problem and on the existence of state subsidies. Flexible Modeling: Besides focusing on the Turkish Private Pension System in this thesis our model is flexible for the inclusion of other financial instruments and investment structures of any other pension system. Practical implications: We believe that participants portfolio management companies and private pension companies can all benefit from the modeling and analysis framework of this thesis. information Scope: We run an extensive survey on the historical progress and current attributes of the Turkish Private Pension System and Turkish Capital Markets along with the global developments on pension funds.