July 2023

Defined benefit pensions with Liability Driven Investments

By Work and Pensions Committee The economic uncertainty experienced in the UK in September 2022 brought to the fore risks associated with the use of Liability Driven Investment (LDI) strategies by pension schemes. LDI strategies aim to reduce volatility in scheme funding levels by investing in assets whose value moves in the same direction as that of the scheme’s liabilities. Leverage allows schemes to do this in a capital efficient way, freeing up capital that they can invest in ways...

The pensions regulator’s annual report and accounts 2022-2023

By The Pensions Regulator The Pensions Regulator (TPR) is the UK regulator of workplace pension schemes. We make sure that employers put their staff into a pension scheme and pay money into it. We also make sure that workplace pension schemes are run properly so that people can save safely for their later years. Read book “here”

U.S. Public Pensions Are Building for The Long-Term. How Pension Plans Are Reacting After A Year Of Shocks.

By Ortec Finance U.S. public sector pension plans are planning ahead for the potential impact of further economic and market shocks, a new report from Ortec Finance, the leading global provider of risk and return management solutions for pension funds and other institutions, shows. Its report based on a study* of U.S. public sector pension plan managers at U.S. public sector pension plans who collectively help manage over $1.315 trillion, found 90% plan to increase spending on scenario modeling and stress...

Reforming against the demographic clock

By Allianz Research  Allianz launched the second edition of its Global Pension Report, which analyzes 75 pension systems around the globe using its proprietary Allianz Pension Index (API). The index consists of three pillars: Analysis of basic demographic and fiscal conditions as well as determination of the sustainability (e.g. funding and contribution periods) and adequacy (e.g. degree of diffusion and pension level) of the pension system. A total of 40 parameters are considered, with values ranging from 1 (very good)...

Pensions for all. Proposals for more inclusive pension systems in Latin America.

Edited by David Tuesta y Gautam Bhardwaj One of the pending tasks in Latin America is the development of a pension system that is widely accessible, sufficient and financially sustainable over time. Beyond the different degrees of progress in each of the countries, they all face similar internal and global challenges. In particular, the problems of high informality of institutions and labor markets make the road even more uphill. The recent Covid19 pandemic scenario has highlighted the structural weaknesses of pension...

The 2021 Ageing Report: Underlying Assumptions and Projection Methodologies

By Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs & Economic Policy Committee With a view to ensuring the sustainability of public finances in the EU, the ECOFIN Council charged the Economic Policy Committee (EPC) with producing a new set of long-term budgetary projections by 2021, on the basis of new population projections to be provided by Eurostat. Safeguarding the sustainability of public finances requires that the analysis is based on reliable, comparable information on possible challenges to fiscal sustainability, including strains...

National survey of gig workers paints a picture of poor working conditions, low pay

By Ben Zipperer, Celine McNicholas, Margaret Poydock, Daniel Schneider & Kristen Harknett  While the concept of nontraditional, short-term, and contract work has been around since well before the digital age, it wasn’t until the 2010s that digital platform companies like Uber, DoorDash, Instacart, and TaskRabbit began to rise to prominence and shape the way we define gig work today. In the most basic terms, gig work can be defined as work done by individuals who are classified as self-employed, freelancers,...

June 2023

The State of Longevity 2021

By Daragh Campbell  2021 demonstrated that research into antiaging therapies is going from strength-to-strength, and our review of longevity clinical trials shows this clearly. As different areas of research continue to gain traction (cellular reprogramming, in particular), we wanted to analyse exactly how the longevity clinical trial market performed last year. In order to assess clinical trial data across 2021, we interrogated the Longevity.Technology database, which consists of over 250 longevity companies (and growing all the time!). This was used to...

ESG in DC Pensions Report

By Emma Simon & John Greenwood In recent years responsible investment strategies and the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in the investment process have moved from a niche concern to the mainstream. In the last 12 months ESG and responsible investing have shot to the top of the agenda for pension professionals, driven by a combination of regulatory pressure, increased consumer awareness, reputation management concerns and the Covid pandemic. Greater public awareness of the relationship between investments...

A review of gender differences in retirement income

By Jennifer Curtin & Yanshu Huang  A research report prepared for the Commission for Financial Capability’s Review of Retirement Income Policy, July 2019. This review seeks to answer the following questions: How wide is the Gender Pension Gap in New Zealand? What is the coverage of KiwiSaver by gender? How does this compare with international trends? Is the Gender Pension Gap reducing (as gender pay gaps are) over time (drawing on both international and NZ data where available)? What accounts...