December 2019

The aging workforce: Older workers are growing in number. And that offers opportunities.

For more than a decade, labor academics and human resource executives have been preparing for the "next" generation — from the millennials, now the largest working population, to the newest members of the workforce, Generation Z. But older Americans are increasingly working later into life. While roughly 10,000 baby boomers a day will reach retirement age between 2011 and 2029, only about 5,900 a day are retiring. Fred Hubacker, 75, continues to work a full schedule as executive director...

Cryptocurrency is At The Center of Multi-Million Dollar Investment Security and Commodities Fraud

The Criminal Division of the IRS arrested Swedish businessman Roger Nils-Jonas Karlsson, for allegedly operating a fraudulent pension plan using cryptocurrency. Karlsson allegedly used fake websites “registered to a fictitious person” to advertise shares of a “Pre-Funded Reversed Pension Plan” (PFRPP). The criminal complaint states that Karlsson allegedly invited potential investors to buy shares of this plan at $98 per share. In exchange, Karlsson promised to eventually return 1.15 kilograms of gold per share to the shareholder as return...

Perceived Precautionary Savings Motives: Evidence from FinTech

By Francesco D'Acunto (Boston College), Thomas Rauter (University of Chicago - Booth School of Business), Christoph Scheuch (Vienna Graduate School of Finance; Vienna University of Economics and Business), Michael Weber (University of Chicago - Finance) We study the consumption response to the provision of credit lines to individuals that previously did not have access to credit combined with the possibility to elicit directly a large set of preferences, beliefs, and motives. As expected, users react to the availability of credit...

The Old-Age Security Motive for Fertility: Evidence from the Extension of Social Pensions in Namibia

By Pauline Rossi (University of Amsterdam), Mathilde Godard (GATE-LSE, Lyon) The old-age security motive for fertility postulates that people's needs for old-age support raise the demand for children. We test this widespread idea using the extension of social pensions in Namibia during the nineties. The reform eliminated inequalities in pension coverage and benefit across regions and ethnic groups. Combining differences in pre-reform pensions and differences in exposure across cohorts, we show that pensions substantially reduce fertility, especially in late...

Ethics, ESG, and ERISA: Ethical-Factor Investing of Savings and Retirement Benefit

By Albert Feuer (Law Offices of Albert Feuer) Ethical-factor investing is investment decision-making that takes into account ethical factors. It includes faith-based investing, Environmental, Social or Governance (ESG) investing, and sustainable investing. It is becoming more and more widespread. This has occurred despite a lack of widely accepted definitions, performance metrics, or ethical preferences. There is increasing broad agreement that some ethical factors highlight business risks and opportunities in a predictable fashion, such as the effects of climate change, human...

México. Afores deben informar de los fondos generacionales

Son pocos los trabajadores que saben de la migración de siefores a fondos. A partir de ahora, el ahorro pensionario de más de 65.3 millones de trabajadores que cuentan con una administradora de fondos para el retiro (afore) se invertirá en un nuevo esquema de fondos generacionales que permitirá fortalecer las inversiones y mejorar los rendimientos que se dan al ahorro para el retiro. Expertos consideran que, si bien puede ser un cambio positivo para mejorar el ahorro pensionario de los...

Colombia. AFP y personas naturales, los mayores compradores netos de acciones en noviembre

Los extranjeros fueron los que más ventas netas realizaron, pues movieron $437.995 millones En noviembre, el mercado de acciones colombiano tuvo importantes flujos vendedores, por el rebalanceo del índice Msci Global Standard y la OPA del Grupo Éxito. Los inversionistas que lideraron las compras netas en el mes fueron los fondos de pensiones y cesantías (AFP), que movieron $184.699 millones; las personas naturales ($165.853 millones) y los institucionales colombianos ($157.199 millones). En este último se agrupan cooperativas, sociedades de inversión, fiduciarias,...

UK. How Boris Johnson’s election win will affect your pension

The Conservatives’ decisive election victory should give the next UK government a better chance of passing new laws to tackle difficult domestic issues. Many pressing issues have been put on the backburner since Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016. Not only has Brexit dominated much parliamentary debate—which may continue—but also weak or non-existent majorities have made passing any legislation harder. One issue the Conservatives could move to address is pension reform, which featured little in the campaign but could...

French union mounts pressure on gov’t with “no Christmas break” strike

The General Confederation of Labor (CGT), France's largest union in the public sector, planned rolling strikes in transport sector during Christmas holidays, mounting pressure on the government to reconsider a pension reform, a union official announced on Thursday. "No Christmas break unless the government comes to its senses," Laurent Brun, head of CGT's railway branch, told France info radio. "The strike continues until we are assured that the current system is maintained and negotiations are underway to improve it," he added. Brun...

Economist: The system is ‘flawed’ when most Americans have little or no retirement savings

It’s no secret that Americans are falling short when it comes to saving enough for retirement. But as a new report shows, many are disastrously unprepared — and that may point to flaws in the system. Progressive think tank the Economic Policy Institute found that Americans 56 to 61 had a median balance of $21,000 in their 401(k) accounts in 2016, which is the most up-to-date data on file. That total reflects almost 30 years of savings. Younger generations do not fare much...