June 2022

US. Are Retirement Savings Tax Incentives Leaving the Middle Class Behind?

A new report by the National Institute on Retirement Security highlights the insufficiencies of current tax incentives in ensuring retirement security for the middle class. It includes marginal tax rates, retirement plan participation and income distribution on retirement savings levels as culpable factors. The report, “The Missing Middle: How Tax Incentives for Retirement Savings Leave Middle Class Families Behind,” also offers potential solutions that could enhance retirement security for middle-class families. Saving for retirement is one of the biggest financial challenges...

LGBTQ and Finance

By Sanjukta Brahma, Konstantinos Gavriilidis, Vasileios Kallinterakis, Thanos Verousis & Mengyu Zhang Recent changes in workplace and corporate board diversity policies and a series of court rulings have signalled a fundamental change in the treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (henceforth LGBTQ) people in the corporate world. In this paper, we survey the burgeoning literature on the role of sexual orientation in finance. We show that LGBTQ-friendly policies affect organizational outcomes and enhance the quality of corporate governance....

Investment Choice in Collectivised Pensions

By John Armstrong & Cristin Buescu Investment choice is a central theme of UK pension policy. This paper shows how a collective pension fund can be managed in a manner that allows individuals to choose how their pension is invested and their schedule of pension payments. The potential benefit to investors of such a fund is quantified on the assumption that they choose to invest optimally. For our indicative choice of individual we find that they would need to invest...

Factors Influencing the Choice of Pension Distribution at Retirement

By Robert L. Clark & Olivia S. Mitchell One of the most important financial decisions that pension participants make concerns how they access their pension assets when they terminate employment with their plan sponsor. Their choices depend both on own preferences and the options offered by their retirement plan. This paper examines both past and future pension withdrawal choices for those with defined benefit and defined contribution pensions, separately. Our data are drawn from a set of pension distribution questions...

México. Las 3 afores con mayor nivel de quejas, según la Condusef

Invercap, Principal y Pensionissste fueron las afores con mayores reclamaciones registradas en 2021, de acuerdo con la Comisión Nacional para la Protección y Defensa de los Usuarios de Servicios Financieros (Condusef). El organismo informó que de enero a diciembre del año pasado se registraron ocho mil 739 quejas. Las afores que resolvieron más asuntos a favor del usuario fueron: Invercap Afore con 75%, Afore Coppel con 73% y Citibanamex Afore con 60%; la que menos resolvió a favor fue Afore XXI...

UK. TPR to finalise CDC code by 1 August; work to tackle pension scams continues

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has confirmed that it is on track to finalise the collective defined contribution (CDC) code of practice by 1 August 2022, while further work on the issue of pension scams will be published "in due course". Speaking at the Pensions Age Northern Conference 2022, TPR lead investment consultant, Fred Berry, confirmed that TPR has been analysing industry feedback following its consultation on the draft code of practice earlier this year. Industry experts previously urged TPR to publish...

Colombia. Los tres pilares que propone de Gustavo Petro sobre pensiones que lo cambian todo

El candidato presidencial ha hecho mucho énfasis en este tema con el que ha provocado controversia a nivel nacional porque toca a millones de personas. Durante la campaña presidencial, Gustavo Petro ha sido muy atacado por su idea sobre la reforma pensional que quiere hacer en Colombia, pues buscará darle un gran giro al sistema con el que se rige la sociedad desde hace más de una década y que, dice él, tiene a muchos adultos mayores sin un ingreso...

Expert panel: Is risk management the new frontier in pension governance?

The importance of risk management isn’t new for the majority of defined benefit pension plan sponsors and administrators. The impact of long-term interest rates, market volatility, changing demographics and increasing longevity, inflation concerns, geopolitical events and other large economic, environmental and social factors are all contributing to the need to manage the financial risks associated with sponsoring and managing a pension plan. Pension regulators have increased their focus on risk management as a way to address investment risk and promote plan...

Hong Kong passes long-awaited labour bill to scrap MPF offsetting mechanism, protecting workers’ pensions

Move ends decade-long debate between bosses and unions, preventing employers from dipping into staff pensions to cover severance and long-service payments Three legislators from pro-business Liberal Party were among those who opposed bill Hong Kong’s legislature has passed a long-awaited labour bill that will stop bosses from dipping into staff pensions to cover severance and long-service payments, ensuring the city’s workers have better retirement protection. The Legislative Council on Thursday voted 72-5 to approve the Employment and Retirement Schemes Legislation...

US. Senate committee approves nominees to Fed, SEC

The Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday advanced a Federal Reserve Board of Governors nominee and two Securities and Exchange Commission nominees. Michael S. Barr, President Joe Biden's nominee as the Fed's vice chairman for supervision, and Jaime E. Lizarraga and Mark T. Uyeda, the president's nominees to the SEC, were each approved by the committee Wednesday. The three nominees testified jointly before the committee in May. Mr. Barr, a law professor at the University of Michigan who served as the Treasury...