April 2024
30Apr

Czechs approve raising retirement age to help future budgets

The Czech government approved changes to the country's pension system on Tuesday, raising retirement ages and lowering pensions for future retirees as it aims to save the system billions of dollars per year. The reform builds in gradual shifts in the retirement age, delaying retirement by seven months for people who are now 52, compared to the current retirement age of 65, according to plans. It also lowers pensions calculated for future retirees by about 8% compared with the current...

April 30, 2024
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30Apr

UK. ‘Shocking’ tech leaves pensions industry in precarious position

The pensions industry has built up a ‘technical debt’ that must be addressed if it is to engage and educate savers, experts have warned. Delegates at the Pensions Administration Standards Association (Pasa) conference in the City of London were told pensions technology was at least “10 years behind” other industries. Paul Sturgess, director of Pasa said: “I fear that the time frame [for keeping up with available technology in other industries] has got bigger than the heady days of 2000.” Paul Leandro,...

April 30, 2024
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30Apr

Dutch pension sector’s funding ratio improves

In the first quarter of 2024, Dutch pension funds saw their funding ratios improve relative to the previous quarter, as the increase in their liabilities was lower than the growth in their investments. Total investments increased by €35 billion to €1,599 billion, while aggregate liabilities increased by €5 billion to €1,370 billion. The funding ratio reflects a pension fund’s current financial position, expressing the ratio between investments and liabilities. The average funding ratio stands at 116.7% The Dutch pension sector’s average...

April 30, 2024
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29Apr

25% of Americans over 50 don’t expect to retire. How to start saving

About a quarter of Americans above the age of 50 say they expect to never retire as the cost of living rises faster than their income, according to a new AARP study. Certified financial planner Shinobu Hindert joined NewsNation’s “Morning in America” with tips on how to plan for retirement amid rising prices. Hindert says when planning for retirement, a person should ideally have the equivalent of one year’s salary saved by the time they are 30, three times their annual salary...

April 29, 2024
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29Apr

UK’s opposition Labour Party commits to triple-lock pension policy

Britain’s opposition Labour Party has committed to keeping for at least five years the so-called triple lock that guarantees rises to state pensions, if it wins the election, underscoring the importance of pensioners to the outcome of the vote. Labour have held an around 20-point lead in opinion polls over Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party for the last nine months, but the one area where they tend to struggle is with voters over 65 years old. Labour leader Keir Starmer...

April 29, 2024
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29Apr

Germany to hike pensions nationwide by 4.57%

The more than 21 million pensioners in Germany would receive a substantial 4.57 percent pension increase beginning on July 1, after the German Cabinet approved the adjustment in Berlin. With this increase, pensions are set to rise faster than inflation in the country. The last time pensions rose faster than inflation was in 2000. The increase is larger than originally predicted, which the Labour Minister Hubertus Heil, credited to strong wage growth in Germany. In the autumn, estimates had predicted an increase of...

April 29, 2024
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29Apr

Czech Republic. Government to debate proposed pension reform next week

The government is set to discuss proposed changes to the pension system on Tuesday. The proposal envisages a gradual increase in the retirement age linked to a higher life expectancy, a different basis for calculating old-age pensions, a lower indexation of pensions and a minimum pension amounting to 20 percent of the average wage. Most of the changes would affect people born after 1966. The present retirement age is 65 for both men and women. According to Labour Minister Marian...

April 29, 2024
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26Apr

Mexican lawmakers approve new pension fund backed by president

Mexico's Senate approved the creation of a new pension fund on Thursday aimed at boosting payouts to the lowest-earning recipients. The creation of the fund, which is part of a pension reform proposed by outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, won the support of 70 senators, with 43 against and two abstentions, after a heated debate that went into the evening. The reform aims to ensure that pensioners receive 100% of their last monthly salary up to about 16,777 Mexican pesos...

April 26, 2024
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26Apr

Nearly Half of the Largest US Pension Funds are More Than 100% Funded, Milliman Reports

Milliman, which tracks the status of the largest 100 corporate defined benefit plans in the U.S., reported that corporate pension funding is near its all-time highs in the recent results of its 2024 corporate pension funding study. Among Milliman’s findings, the funded status of these plans declined slightly from 99.4% to 98.5%, due to a slight decline in plan discount rates. The funded deficit of these plans increased from $8.5 billion to $19.9 billion in 2023. However, this is far from...

April 26, 2024
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26Apr

UK. Public trust in pensions rises, but reservations remain

Trafalgar House’s Trust and Confidence Index polled 2,000 people to assess how much they trust the pension industry and whether they believe it will meet their retirement needs. It asked participants to rate their trust in the pensions industry on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being “not at all” and 10 being “a lot”. The index found that trust in the pensions industry increased to 5.26 out of 10 in 2023, up from 4.95 in 2022. This...

April 26, 2024
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