February 2018

20Feb

Ghana. Private pension funds hit GH¢9.7bn; expert wants funds used for prudent investments

Private pension funds have maintained their strong growth over the years, reaching a record high of GH¢9.7billion in 2017, from the previous year’s GH¢6.8billion. Data from the sector regulator, the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), show that 9.2 billion of the 9.7 billion was accrued from Assets Under Management (AUM) managed by licenced trustees, while some GH¢0.5billion came from the Temporary Pension Fund Account (TPFA). Last year’s figure, which is over 4.5 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), represents...

February 20, 2018
News, Slider
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19Feb

Colombia. El envejecimiento poblacional y la informalidad han hecho insostenibles los sistemas de reparto en Colombia

Una de las razones que se tuvieron en el pasado para establecer regímenes de reparto en pensiones (o de prima media, como los llamamos en Colombia), o para crear pilares de reparto en sistemas mixtos, es lo que se denomina la ‘solidaridad intergeneracional’. En estos regímenes de prima media (RPM) no hay ahorro, y las pensiones de los jubilados se pagan directamente con la plata de las cotizaciones que realizan los trabajadores activos en el mercado laboral. La mayoría de...

February 19, 2018
Noticias
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19Feb

España. Cataluña y pensiones, los dos temas que aguardan a Rajoy en su regreso al Senado

El presidente del Gobierno acudió por última vez al Senado en noviembre, porque al mes siguiente no compareció ante el Pleno. El año pasado, falló también en abril, junio y octubre, aunque ha procurado mantener la tradición inaugurada por el socialista José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero de responder a preguntas de la oposición una vez al mes. En el caso del Congreso, asiste a todos los Plenos de control al Gobierno. El portavoz socialista, Ander Gil, pondrá a Rajoy frente a...

February 19, 2018
Noticias
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19Feb

How To Save More For Retirement And Deal With Volatility

The past few weeks have given stock investors around the world a bitter taste of the volatility dragon that comes out of its cave every once and a while. It hasn't been pleasant. After years of steady returns, we seem to be in a new market phase. Interest rates are climbing. Stock prices are getting pummeled. And the U.S. will be pitching global investors on trillions of dollars in new debt. There are some easy ways to deal with volatility while...

February 19, 2018
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19Feb

The pensions gender gap

AS you may remember, we recently looked at a report from the pensions company Aegon which highlighted the pensions saving gap between men and women. It revealed that by age 50, women have on average saved half as much as men into their pension: just £56,000 compared to £112,000 for their male colleagues. Well, now there have been some studies done down south, that show this is not just an exclusively UK or Northern Ireland problem, it goes right across the...

February 19, 2018
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19Feb

US. Spending Bill Sets Path to Fix a Looming Pension Crisis

The sprawling agreement to boost government spending reached by Republicans and Democrats this month quietly included a step toward defusing what could be a financial time bomb for 1.5 million retirees and hundreds of companies in the industrial Midwest and the South. The deal creates a select congressional committee to craft what could effectively be a federal rescue of as many as 200 so-called “multiemployer” pension plans — in which employers and labor unions band together to provide retirement benefits...

February 19, 2018
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19Feb

Japan, short of workers, eyes hiking optional pension age beyond 70

Japan has okayed plans to let people choose to start drawing their state pensions beyond the age of 70 as it grapples with severe labour shortages, ballooning welfare costs and a shrivelling tax base stemming from its greying population. The government said on Friday it would look to cement the proposals through legal changes after April 2020, adding that it would look at raising in stages the mandatory retirement age for some 3.4 million civil servants to 65 from the...

February 19, 2018
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19Feb

Improving the Targeting of Social Programs in Ghana

By Quentin Wodon This study provides a diagnostic of the benefit incidence and targeting performance of a large number of social programs in Ghana. Both broad-based programs (such as spending for education and health, and subsidies for food, oil-related products and electricity) as well as targetd programs (such as LEAP, the indigent exemption under the NHIS, school lunches and uniforms, or fertilizer subsidies) are considered. In addition, the study provides tools and recommendations for better targeting of those programs in...

February 19, 2018
Books, System Sustainability, , ,
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19Feb

Save More Tomorrow: Practical Behavioral Finance Solutions to Improve 401(k) Plans

By Shlomo Benartzi One of the world’s top experts in behavioral finance offers innovative strategies for improving 401(k) plans. Half of Americans do not have access to a retirement saving plan at their workplace. Of those who do about a third fail to join. And those who do join tend to save too little and often make unwise investment decisions. In short, the 401(k) world is in crisis, and workers need help. Save More Tomorrow provides that help by focusing on the...

February 19, 2018
Books, Pension design, Savings,
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19Feb

Political Viability of Intergenerational Transfers. An Empirical Application

By Gianko Michailidis (University of Barcelona) & Concepcio Patxot (University of Barcelona - Department of Economic Theory) Public intergenerational transfers (IGTs) may arise because of the failure of private arrangements to provide optimal economic resources for the young and the old. We examine the political sustainability of the system of public IGTs by asking what the outcome would be if the decision per se to reallocate economic resources between generations was put to the vote. By exploiting the particular nature...

February 19, 2018
Aging, Articles, Labor Market, Pension design, , ,
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