Peer Review for Default Investment Safe Harbor Regulation

This document is about a peer review of the methods and data used by the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) of the Department of Labor to predict the likely effects on participant pension balances of a proposed regulatory safe harbor for the investment of contributions when participants fail to provide investment direction. The review examines the assumptions and scenarios used in the PENSIM model and provides critiques on the treatment of financial risk factors, equity premium, and company stock risk.