Along with the accelerated advancement of population aging,China’s economic development has led Chinese residents’ income to a moderate level.However,the unfair and unsustainable features of “dual standard of pension insurance” for both rural and urban cadre and employees have become so increasingly prominent that the time to change it has come.The top-level design of pension insurance should be taken shape on the basis of clarifying such concepts as old-age security,insurance,system,institution,and mechanism,and be carried out gradually in several steps at different levels.At the first level,basic pension insurance system should be reformed and created;at the second level,a new institution for pension insurance system should be reformed and created;at the third level,reform and improvements are made to compensate pension insurance system.Among these,the key is to establish a uniform pension insurance system for both urban and rural cadre and employees which is primarily dependent on individuals’ payment and secondly by enterprises (units).Such institutional innovation requires initiatives from both govment and market towards a market-oriented reform.