March 2024
27Mar

Little planning for looming retirement crisis, BlackRock chief warns

The chief executive of the world’s largest asset manager is warning of a future “retirement crisis”, as pension savings fail to keep up with life-extending medical breakthroughs. In his annual letter to investors, the BlackRock chief executive, Larry Fink, said that establishing “a secure, well-earned retirement” would be one of the greatest economic challenges to face the US in the mid-21st century. The boss of BlackRock, which manages about $10tn (£7.4tn) in assets, including retirement funds, praised medical advances, including obesity drugs such...

March 27, 2024
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27Mar

Australia. New Law Boosts Affordable, Accessible Financial Advice

Today, the Albanese Government has introduced the first tranche of legislation to deliver its comprehensive package of reforms to ensure Australians have access to quality and affordable financial advice. There are over five million Australians at or approaching retirement who need assistance to navigate the pension and superannuation systems. Unfortunately, the average cost of financial advice puts professional advice out of reach for many Australians. The Treasury Laws Amendment (Delivering Better Financial Outcomes and Other Measures) Bill 2024 implements reforms which...

March 27, 2024
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26Mar

Funded Status of Largest 100 US Public Pension Funds Rises to 78.6%

Public pension funded status increased to 78.6% at the end of February, up from 77.7% the month before, according to the monthly Milliman Inc. 100 Public Pension Funding Index, which tracks the funded status of the largest 100 public defined benefit plans in the U.S. Public plan funded status rose in February to the highest level since May 2022, when funded status for these plans stood at 78.4%, and 78.6% the month before. In the interim, funded status bottomed out at...

March 26, 2024
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26Mar

Majority of U.K. DB plans looking for buy-in or buyout

More than half (53%) of the U.K.’s large defined benefit plans are planning for an insurer buy-in or buyout within the next three years, according to research by insurance and asset management firm Legal & General. In 2023, around £50 billion of U.K. retirement income was secured with insurance companies through pension buy-ins and buyouts. When it came to investment strategy, three quarters of respondents affirmed that they were decreasing allocations to illiquid assets. Insurers have previously expressed caution in engaging...

March 26, 2024
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26Mar

What we must do to expand pension coverage in Kenya

By SIMON WAFUBWA   Significant progress in the pension sector has been made in the past two decades and we continue to see growth every year. According to the Retirement Benefits Authority, Kenya’s Pension Assets stood at Sh1.7 trillion by the end of June 2023. This marked an 8.1 percent growth compared to Sh1.5 trillion the previous year. However, as a country, we still have certain challenges to overcome to ensure the financial security of the entire population during their retirement years. The...

March 26, 2024
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25Mar

UK’s Conservatives will commit to pensions triple lock, says Hunt

Britain's ruling Conservative Party would commit to keeping the so-called triple lock for increasing state pensions, finance minister Jeremy Hunt said on Sunday, seeking to woo older voters ahead of an election expected later this year. With the opposition Labour Party holding a strong lead in opinion polls, Hunt stepped up efforts to draw a dividing line between the parties by emphasising the Conservatives' commitment to lower taxation. Under the existing pension triple lock system, the government has promised to raise...

March 25, 2024
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25Mar

U.S. pension funds sue Allianz after $4 billion in coronavirus losses

Pension funds for truckers, teachers and subway workers have lodged lawsuits in the United States against Germany's Allianz, one of the world's top asset managers, for failing to safeguard their investments during the coronavirus market meltdown. Market panic around the virus that resulted in billions in losses earlier this year scarred many investors, but no other top-tier asset manager is facing such a large number of lawsuits in the United States connected to the turbulence. In March, Allianz <ALVG.DE> was forced...

March 25, 2024
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25Mar

Nursing homes can’t meet the care needs of an aging population

Where are we going to get the workers to care for us? How are we going to pay them? Long-term care is one of the major challenges facing an aging society. Care can take the form of a nursing home, formal care provided in the community or home, or informal care provided by family or friends. KFF recently released a really nice summary of the state of play on the nursing home front in the process of describing a proposed rule...

March 25, 2024
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25Mar

South Africa. Two-pot system: how the state is dealing with its own funds

There are three pension funds in the country, including South Africa’s largest fund, that are not governed by the Pension Funds Act, and National Treasury needs to deal with these separately in implementing its famous two-pot retirement system. I refer to three government pension funds, in particular the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), which holds more than R2.3 trillion in assets and has almost 1.3 million active members and another 475 000 pensioners and beneficiaries. This fund is constituted under...

March 25, 2024
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22Mar

U.S. PRT transactions hit all-time high in 2023 – Aon

U.S. pension risk transfer transactions totaled $45 billion and set a new record for number of transactions for 2023, according to a new report from Aon. There were a total of 773 transactions, which include pension buyouts as a result of retiree liftouts and terminations, along with a small number of buy-ins in which liabilities are insured but remain with a plan sponsor, according to the report. Of that total, there were 453 terminations, 310 liftouts and 10 buy-in transactions, accounting...

March 22, 2024
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