December 2018

Bermuda. Athene Announces Significant Pension Risk Transfer Transaction with Bristol-Myers Squibb

Athene Holding Ltd. (“Athene”) (NYSE: ATH, a leading retirement services company, announced today a first-of-its-kind pension plan termination transaction with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) covering more than 24,000 active employee participants, retirees, beneficiaries, and former Bristol-Myers Squibb employees who have not yet commenced their benefits. Under the agreement, Athene’s wholly-owned Iowa-domiciled life insurance subsidiary, Athene Annuity and Life Company (“AAIA”), agreed in advance to provide an annuity contract covering all obligations of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s U.S. Retirement Income Plan (the...

OECD Pensions Outlook 2018

The 2018 edition of the OECD Pensions Outlook examines how pension systems are adapting to improve retirement outcomes. It focuses on designing funded pensions and assesses how different pension arrangements can be combined taking into account various policy objectives and risks involved in saving for retirement. It looks at how countries can improve the design of financial incentives, and presents policy guidelines on aligning charges and costs of providing funded pensions. This edition also draws lessons from nationally significant investment...

D3P, a new company dedicated to adding billions to pension coverage and old-age income globally

CEO William Price, formerly of the UK Treasury and World Bank, and Darren Ryder, former National Manager of KiwiSaver in New Zealand, announce the launch of D3P Global Pension Consulting – a new company with an unrivalled group of professionals dedicated to building better pension systems globally. Unlike other companies, D3P Global Pension Consulting will work with governments not only to diagnose and design pension systems but also bring deep expertise to deliver those reforms – working from strategic ambition...

España. Planes de pensiones, «ganadores» en el largo plazo

Un mayor conocimiento de los ciudadanos sobre sus futuras pensiones, mayores incentivos fiscales y una mejor rentabilidad impulsarían en España su contratación. El aumento de la esperanza de vida en España hasta los 83 años, la inversión de la pirámide poblacional (ya mueren más personas de las que nacen), un mercado laboral en que los salarios de los nuevos trabajadores son cada vez más bajos y un déficit en la Seguridad Social que alcanzó en 2017 un récord histórico de...

UK. Pensions dashboards to enable more informed retirement planning

Proposals to give millions of people their pension facts and figures at their fingertips have been unveiled by the government. Pioneering proposals to give millions of people their pension facts and figures at their fingertips have been unveiled by the government today (3 December). New free, user-friendly ‘pensions dashboards’ would allow people to access their information from most pension schemes in one place online for the first time. Pensions dashboards – an idea welcomed by consumer groups and pension providers - would: ...

India. Why pension funds are a good bet for investors

They are regulated by India's Pension Fund & Regulatory Development Authority Q: Investment in pension funds is becoming quite popular. As I am returning to India for good this year, I want to know how safe and secure these funds are and whether they are properly regulated? A: Pension funds are regulated by the Pension Fund & Regulatory Development Authority (PFRDA). This authority exercises control over pension fund managers (PFM). The PFMs are permitted to invest only in corporate bonds which...

A Regulation Revolution In Financial Services

If your professional interests take you to the crossroads of financial services, regulation, compliance, and digital - especially data analytics and machine learning - which altogether is known as regtech, you are in the right place. You are part of statistically small and very geek-oriented professional community, but you know this, and though you might choose not to admit this to strangers at this year's festive parties for fear of causing great pain by boredom, you are in good...

Waiting on Retirement: Aging and Economic Insecurity in Low-Wage Work

By Mary Gatta America is witnessing a retirement crisis. As the labor market shifts to the gig economy and new strains restrict social security, the American Dream of secure retirement becomes further out of reach for up to half of the population. In Waiting on Retirement, Mary Gatta takes the case of restaurant workers to examine the experiences of low-wage workers who are middle-aged, aging, and past retirement age. She deftly explores the many factors shaping what it means to...

Downhill from Here: Retirement Insecurity in the Age of Inequality

By Katherine S Newman As millions of Baby Boomers reach their golden years, the state of retirement in America is little short of a disaster. Nearly half the households with people aged 55 and older have no retirement savings at all. The real estate crash wiped out much of the home equity that millions were counting on to support their retirement. And the typical Social Security check covers less than 40% of pre-retirement wages--a number projected to drop to under...

The Effect of Work Disability on the Intention to Retire of Older Workers

By Danilo Cavapozzi (Ca Foscari University of Venice - Dipartimento di Economia; Netspar) & Chiara Dal Bianco (Department of Economics and Management, University of Padova) In this paper, we analyze the effect of work disability on the desire to retire as soon as possible of older workers. We exploit objective health indicators and anchoring vignettes to develop work disability measures enhancing the comparability across individuals of work disability self-assessments. Our results show that, even once controlling for individual fixed-effects, individuals...