March 2025
06Mar

The U.S. has a record low fertility rate. Is that good news or bad news? It’s complicated.

The U.S. fertility rate — the average number of children each woman gives birth to — fell 22% between 1990 and 2023, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). It’s not a new trend; the decline began in 2007, just ahead of the 2008 recession. Coupled with the rapidly aging American population, the falling fertility rate has long made policymakers nervous about draining Social Security funds and generally causing...

March 6, 2025
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05Mar

More Than Half of U.S. Households Have Retirement Accounts, CRS Says

More than half of U.S. households had retirement accounts in a just-released study by the Congressional Research Service. That’s 54%, to be exact, according to the CRS in “Distribution of Retirement Account Balances: Analysis of the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances,” released on Feb. 26, 2025. The CRS defines “retirement account” for purposes of this study as defined contribution (DC) plans and individual retirement accounts (IRAs). It recognizes, however, that U.S. households have other sources of income during retirement as...

March 5, 2025
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05Mar

The European country tearing up its pensions – and why Britain should take note

Apathy rules supreme in workplace pensions. Almost 30 million people work in the UK’s private sector and for many, a pension contribution is just another line on the monthly payslip. It’s precisely this mindset that government ministers were counting on when they introduced auto-enrolment in 2012, forcing employers into offering workplace pensions but leaving employees with the final decision. The hunch proved to be well-founded. Although workers can opt out at any time, very few have. Within a decade, the proportion with a workplace...

March 5, 2025
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05Mar

‘Trump can’t tell people where to invest their money’

One of Donald Trump’s first acts on returning to the White House was to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement, and he has long railed against environmental, social and governance investment and “woke capitalism”, having rolled back more than 100 environmental rules and policies in his first term. So there is an understandable fear that Trump’s stance will slow momentum towards meeting net-zero targets and reduce sustainable investment around the world. Multiple financial institutions have withdrawn from net-zero alliances set...

March 5, 2025
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05Mar

Pooled pension innovations offer new structures for retirement income

This article is part of a new Globe Advisor series, Pensions Unpacked, exploring how workplace pensions fit into retirement strategies, and the technical details and decisions that come with the plans. The steady decline of defined-benefit (DB) pension plans has led to the creation of new pension models aimed at helping employees save money for retirement and employers seeking to attract and retain staff. The newer plans fall into the broad category of pooled pensions. Contributors combine their savings to benefit...

March 5, 2025
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05Mar

US Public Pension Funds Increased Allocations to Fixed Income in 2024

US public pension funds are raising their fixed-income allocations, but with equities still holding the largest share of portfolios, US small- and mid-cap stocks could present an opportunity, according to the National Conference on Public Employees Retirement System (NCPERS). Data from 201 US public pension funds revealed that while allocations to other asset classes declined in the first half of 2024, fixed-income investments saw a sharp increase. Equities remained the largest part of pension portfolios, averaging a 41.5% allocation, though this was down...

March 5, 2025
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04Mar

UK. DB schemes reconsidering long-term strategies amid market changes

Defined benefit (DB) pension schemes may be reconsidering their endgame strategies in light of recent market movements, PwC has said, after its Low Reliance Index continued to show a record surplus position, rising to £180bn in February 2025. PwC’s Buyout Index also recorded a surplus position of £90bn, demonstrating that DB pensions schemes continue to have, on average, sufficient assets to buyout their pension promises. PwC head of investment strategy, Sam Seadon, noted that there has been "something of a roller...

March 4, 2025
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04Mar

The Coming Revolution in Pension Investment Technology

Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is a hot topic on Wall Street. It’s the new gold rush. Many of us are already using large language models to pull up and assemble information, and sometimes even draft written reports. “Sandboxes” are popping up all over to ingest data in various forms and swiftly produce inferential analytics that would take days for humans. The stock market has gone gaga for companies with credible AGI or quantum computing potential. Some industry leaders are envisioning “superintelligent” systems that theoretically could outthink most...

March 4, 2025
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04Mar

UK. The People’s Pension Fund Revamps Investment Strategy

The People’s Pension has pulled more than US$35bn of investments from State Street over sustainability and ESG concerns, passing funds to Amundi & Invesco One of the UK's leading pension funds, the People’s Pension, has made a significant move by withdrawing £28bn (US$35bn) from State Street, as part of its strategic alignment towards enhanced Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals. This reshuffling involves reallocating a substantial £20bn (US$25bn) to Amundi, and another £8bn (US$10bn) to Invesco. Consequently, only £5bn (US$6.2bn) remains under State Street's management, notably reduced...

March 4, 2025
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04Mar

South Korea’s birthrate rebounds, but is it sustainable?

After nearly a decade of birth rates in steady decline, South Korea reversed that trend to report a significant uptick in newborns in 2024. Announced by the government-run Statistics Korea agency on February 26, a total of 238,300 babies were born last year, up 3.6% from a record low of just 230,000 in 2023. And while the increase is certainly grounds for celebration in a nation that is recognized as one of the most rapidly contracting and aging in the world, analysts caution that...

March 4, 2025
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