November 2022

Pension funds can influence a major shift in ESG investing

Year after year, parties to the UN Climate Change Conference make pledges to mend their ways in key focus areas such as carbon emissions. The centrality of finance as the catalyst for change in climate matters has been reiterated. As such, pension funds can loop in to make a change and simultaneously derive satisfactory value for their members. Possibly the largest mobiliser of private finance globally, pension funds are a potential superpower in the climate change battle. With Kenya’s assets...

Too much choice counterproductive in retirement systems, new report finds

Giving pension savers the freedom to choose their own investments is beneficial, but including too much choice in a national pension system is counterproductive, according to a new report assessing different retirement frameworks. In the white paper produced by US financial services firm Morningstar – An Evaluation of Retirement Systems Around the World – analysts reach a number of conclusions, saying some countries are better than others at limiting choice; that auto-enrolment programmes are effective and that efforts to engage...

State and Local Pensions: What Now?

By Alicia H. Munnell In the wake of the financial crisis and Great Recession, the health of state and local pension plans has emerged as a front burner policy issue. Elected officials, academic experts, and the media alike have pointed to funding shortfalls with alarm, expressing concern that pension promises are unsustainable or will squeeze out other pressing government priorities. A few local governments have even filed for bankruptcy, with pensions cited as a major cause. Alicia H. Munnell draws on...

The Story of UK Pensions: An engaging guide to the pensions system

By Matthew Rhodes This book explains the wonderful world of UK pensions. It starts with a brief history of how the system has developed over time, covering the different arrangements provided by the private and public sectors, as well as the State. It then investigates the system in more detail, explaining some of the complexitiies and why pensions so often make news headlines. This book is suitable for anyone - whether you know nothing about pensions, or are someone in...

Older Persons’ Rights to Social Security

By Alan Gutterman Article 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that “[e]veryone, as a member of society, has the right to social security”, and Article 9 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (“ICESCR”) calls on States to “recognize the right of everyone to social security, including social insurance”. In its General Comment No. 19 on the right to social security released in 2008, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (“CESCR”) explained...

Risk Pooling and Precautionary Saving in Village Economies

By Marcel Fafchamps & Aditya Shrinivas We propose a new method to test for efficient risk pooling that allows for intertemporal smoothing, non-homothetic consumption, and heterogeneous risk and time preferences. The method is composed of three steps. The first one allows for precautionary savings by the aggregate risk pooling group. The second utilizes the inverse Engel curve to estimate good-specific tests for efficient risk pooling. In the third step, we obtain consistent estimates of households' risk and time preferences using...

Trends in State and Local Pension Funds

By Oliver Giesecke & Joshua D. Rauh Unfunded public pension obligations represent the largest liability for state and local governments in the United States. As of fiscal year 2021, the total reported unfunded liabilities of these plans is $1.076 trillion. In contrast, the market value of the unfunded liability is approximately $6.501 trillion. As a result, the reported funding ratio of 82.5% falls to 43.8% under a market-based valuation. The market values reflect the fact that accrued pension promises are...

Chile’s Boric announces plan to end private pension system

Chile’s President Gabriel Boric on Wednesday announced his long-awaited plan to reform the country’s controversial private pension system. In a televised address, Boric said he was planning to end Chile’s Pension Fund Administrators (AFP) system in lieu of a new private-public social security system that would see new contributions from employers and the state. “The AFPs, in this reform, are finished,” Boric said, adding that new private entities would still be allowed to invest pension funds, but there will also be...

UK pensions dashboards may lead to industry consolidation

Final regulations to enable people in the UK to access information on their pensions through online pension dashboards have been laid before parliament. The pensions dashboard regulations set out how pension schemes will connect to the online dashboard ecosystem and what providers must do to become a qualified pensions dashboard service. It comes in the year that marks 10 years since the introduction of automatic enrolment. According to UK Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), with more people managing their finances...

Chile. Presidente Boric anunció reforma previsional: “Las AFP se terminan”

El mandatario explicó la propuesta que contempla tres ejes: mejorar el monto de la PGU, la creación del Seguro Social a partir de una nueva cotización de cargo de los empleadores, y el fin de las AFP a través de la reorganización de la industria. “Esta reforma esperada y postergada durante 15 años crea un sistema que mejorará las pensiones para todas las personas”, de los 2 millones actuales jubilados y de cada una de las personas que se jubilarán...