July 2022
22Jul

US. Pension unfunded liabilities rising with market volatility

The markets giveth and the markets taketh away. Unfunded liabilities for state pension funds are expected to climb from $783 billion in 2021 to $1.3 trillion in 2022. The funded ratio of state pensions would fall from 85% last year to 75% in 2022. That’s according to the Reason Foundation, which states that after the market expansion of 2021 helped pensions; the rather lackluster performance of markets this year could see an average rate of return for state pensions at...

July 22, 2022
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22Jul

Caisse admits $150-million investment in bankrupt Celsius ‘raises a number of questions’

Quebec’s pension manager broke its silence about its investment in Celsius Network LLC, saying it will “take time” to resolve claims around the bankrupt cryptocurrency lender but admitted the investment didn’t pan out. Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec invested $150 million in Celsius in October as part of a $400 million funding round co-led by WestCap Investment Partners LLC. Equity holders are likely to be wiped out after Celsius filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a U.S. court,...

July 22, 2022
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22Jul

Iranian Pensioners Protest Again, Demand Full Hike In Pensions As Promised

Pensioners and retired government employees have again taken to the streets in several cities across Iran shouting anti-government slogans and demanding a full 38 percent increase in their pensions, which was promised by the Supreme Labor Council. The recent wave of protests by pensioners and retirees comes after the government announced on June 6 that it would increase the monthly incomes of non-minimum-wage retirees by 10 percent, far below a previous pledge to raise them by 38 percent plus 5.15...

July 22, 2022
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22Jul

Defined Benefit Risk Phase 2: Expert Interviews

By David G. Pitts Over the course of 2020 and 2021, the research team interviewed the following subjects: • Chief Financial Officer • Chief Risk Officer • Multiemployer Plan FSA • Public Plan FSA • Investment Consultant / FSA • Outsourced Chief Investment Officer / FSA • Canadian FSA / CERA Each interview lasted approximately one hour. All interviewees are senior practitioners in the defined benefit space. The interview notes include a faithful representation of the ideas discussed, with some changes in minor details to ensure the anonymity of the respondent. Executive...

July 22, 2022
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22Jul

Pension Fund Environmental, Social and Governance Risk Disclosures: Developing Global Practice

By International Actuarial Association  The paper summarizes the main features and trends in pension fund Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) risk disclosures around the world available to regulators, members and the public. It includes reference to statutory requirements, general practice and voluntary disclosures in relation to pension fund accounts and other documents made available to members, such as benefit/fund statements. We discuss the financial and reputational risks which ESG issues can present to pension fund investments and to long-term performance. We refer...

July 22, 2022
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22Jul

The Effects of Myopia on Retirement Savings Decisions

By Justin van de Ven Recent pensions policy debate in the United Kingdom has emphasised the role of behavioural myopia in justifying state involvement in retirement provisions (e.g. Pensions Commission, 2005, pp. 68-69, and op.cit.). In this regard, it appears that the public debate has gotten slightly ahead of the economic literature, as there currently exist very few studies that consider the empirical support for myopia on field data, or the practical implications of myopia for behavioural responses to policy...

July 22, 2022
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22Jul

New Evidence on the Demand for Advice within Retirement Plans

By Jonathan Reuter & David P. Richardson. We study demand for advice within defined contribution retirement plans offered by 23 institutions where TIAA is sole recordkeeper. Advice seeking increases with age, account balance, annual contribution level, web access, and changes in marital status. More provocatively, participants who invest solely through target date funds—the dominant default investment option—are significantly less likely to seek any form of advice throughout the age distribution, raising the possibility that reliance upon defaults crowds out advice...

July 22, 2022
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22Jul

Myopic Savings Behaviour of Future Polish Pensioners

By Sonia Buchholtz, Jan Gaska & Marek Góra Low saving rates combined with low effective retirement age herald old-age poverty. This paper examines the preferred strategies of future Polish pensioners in order to sustain the standard of living in the future. A two-step approach is used: as a first-best strategy, we explore determinants of supplementary saving with binary logistic models; as a second-best strategy, we examine alternative options with principal component analysis. Future retirees rarely accumulate long-term savings, do not use...

July 22, 2022
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21Jul

México. Le ‘meten al cochinito’: Crece ahorro de Afores en junio

Al cierre de junio pasado, el ahorro voluntario que hicieron los trabajadores a su cuenta de Afore alcanzó 105.8 mil millones de pesos, lo que representó el monto más alto del que se tenga registro para un periodo similar, de acuerdo con estadísticas de la Consar. El monto ahorrado al finalizar la primera mitad del año fue 4.1 por ciento real mayor que lo visto en el mismo periodo del año pasado; mientras que fue un alza de 29.9 por...

July 21, 2022
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21Jul

US. Here’s How Badly the Market Crash Has Hurt Pension Funds

Public pension plans in the U.S. saw significant losses in 2022 as interest rates rose and stock markets tanked. In its annual state of pensions report, Equable Institute, a non-profit that provides public pension research and information, found that in the fiscal year ending in June 2022, the aggregate funded ratio of statewide and municipal public pensions plans dropped by 6.9 percentage points — a loss of about half of 2021’s gains. In fact, the report said this drop is...

July 21, 2022
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