The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review and St. John’s University’s Greenberg School of Risk Management are pleased to announce a Conference and special issue on
“Tontines and Modern Innovations in Retirement Risk Management”

February 23 – 25, 2024, at St. John’s Manhattan campus

Keynotes by Moshe A. Milevsky, Schulich School of Business, York University, and Olivia S. Mitchell, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.


The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review and St. John’s University’s Greenberg School of Risk Management aim to convene a conference, and an associated special issue that will synthesize, expand, and disseminate scholarly research on tontines and tontine-like retirement schemes. Although we are particularly interested in the economics of tontine finance, we envision a conference with broad participation by scholars from several scholarly communities, including, e.g., risk and insurance economics; pension economics; economic history; finance; demography; actuarial science; and law.


We encourage researchers to submit papers from all areas of research applying to the above theme. Questions and topics of interest include:


• What were the historical conditions or frictions that favored the widespread historical use of tontines and other products like corrodies and reversionary annuities? What lessons does the historical use of such products have for retirement planning today?


• Under what conditions can tontines have a useful and expanded role to play in financing modern retirements, and, conversely, under what conditions are they unnecessary or undesirable relative to other approaches?


• How do economic conditions and financial frictions influence the optimal structure and role of modern tontine schemes?


• What legal and regulatory frictions impede the successful expansion of tontines and other retirement innovations?


• What are the implications of demographic changes for the development and deployment of modern tontines?


• How do modern tontines interact with public or other, more traditional pension schemes in financing modern retirements?

Please submit proposals for the conference electronically to Mark Browne (tontine2024@gmail.com) by October 1, 2023.

Authors of accepted papers will be notified by November 15, 2023 and completed papers will be due by January 1, 2024.

Papers presented at the conference will be considered as being submitted to the special issue of the Geneva Risk and Insurance Review and go through the usual refereeing process.

A $1,000 travel award will be granted per accepted proposal to subsidize the travel costs of one co-author.

To see the full Call for Papers please click here.