April 2024
10Apr

Caisse races toward sustainability targets but says company data to measure emissions from investments is still lacking

The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is reaching its targets to cut carbon emissions from its $434-billion investment portfolio years ahead of schedule, but much of the hardest work is still to come. The Montreal-based pension fund manager said in an annual sustainability report released Wednesday that it has cut the intensity of carbon emissions from its investment portfolio by 59 per cent since 2017. That puts it just shy of a 60-per-cent reduction it aims to achieve...

April 10, 2024
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10Apr

U.S. private equity exit activity remains low

There were 201 private equity exits totaling $66.7 billion in the first quarter, according to data provided by PitchBook. That compares with 233 exits and $82.4 billion in volume for the fourth quarter. Exit volume was much higher in 2020 and 2021. In the second quarter of 2021, there were 431 exits and $263.3 billion in exit value. There were 65 private equity funds that raised $77.6 billion in during the first quarter. The average size was about $1.2 billion. For all...

April 10, 2024
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10Apr

The country with the most generous retirement in the world

The UK state pension notoriously pays a meagre income that barely covers the basic cost of living in retirement. Even those who receive the full £11,500 a year face a shortfall of almost £3,000 on what is required for a ‘minimum’ standard of living, according to pension industry guidelines. But are British pensioners really any worse off than their counterparts in Europe and around the world? And just how generous are state pension schemes in other countries? With the help of pensions firm...

April 10, 2024
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09Apr

Pensions giant to create UK superfund in boost for Hunt

Britain’s biggest long-term savings and retirement business is drawing up plans to launch a new superfund to back fast-growing companies in a boost for Jeremy Hunt. Phoenix, which owns insurer Standard Life, is in the early stages of creating a multibillion-pound investment vehicle that insiders say will help turbocharge investment in high-growth sectors and lift pension returns. This includes pooling cash to invest in life sciences and fintech businesses, as well as injecting long-term venture capital into unlisted companies in the...

April 9, 2024
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09Apr

Financial sector faces challenges amid climate crisis

Many of us have life insurance or retirement funds: we may allocate a portion of our salary to them each month. But we rarely know how our money is being invested. We simply trust that, when the time comes, the resources will be available to us and that the financial system will have invested our savings wisely. Still, we don’t necessarily know precisely where our money is being invested, nor do we know what regulatory framework financial institutions are operating under. At...

April 9, 2024
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09Apr

Cyprus. State pension fund reaching critical levels

The Fiscal Council, advising the Cyprus government on economic policies, has renewed a warning call that borrowing from the Social Insurance Fund has reached critical levels, threatening to derail public finances if action is not taken. In an announcement on Thursday, it urged the government to act on the suggestions of an actuarial study, submitted to the authority earlier in the week. The authority has warned that it needs to address its dependency on the Social Insurance Fund, as it...

April 9, 2024
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09Apr

UK. Cover story: Pensions are on life support – but how do we save them?

We are in the midst of a pensions crisis. For a long time, experts have warned that UK adults aren’t saving anywhere near enough money to ensure a comfortable, or even moderate, retirement. But now it feels as though we’ve reached breaking point. If pensions were a person, it’s probably safe to say they’d be on life support. Let’s take a quick look at the facts. Around a fifth of working-age private-sector employees — approximately 3.5 million people — do not pay anything...

April 9, 2024
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09Apr

US. As Gen Xers Inch Toward Retirement, They’re Considering Where to Live

When they were raising their four children, Billy and Erin Shipley had space for their family to grow: a two-story, five-bedroom house in Sugar Land, Texas, with a large yard and a pool. But as the children became adults and moved out, the second floor was deserted and maintaining the lawn and pool became a burden. Like many members of Generation X facing an empty nest, the Shipleys decided to look for a home better suited to their needs where...

April 9, 2024
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08Apr

UK. Women’s pension pots ‘worth half of mens’

The comparison with male pensions find women’s savings are dwarfed, with men’s pensions average around £75,000. It was also found that men are ‘more likely to manage their own pensions’ than women. Independent research conducted on behalf of Handelsbanken Wealth & Asset Management on gender and the wealth gap. Nearly a third of women were found to have pensions below £25,000 and only one in 10 women have a pension exceeding £100,000, whole this is true for nearly a third...

April 8, 2024
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08Apr

Largest Australia Pension Fund Says Now Is the Time to Buy Private Assets

Australia’s largest pension fund wants to put more money into private-market investments and will further boost its exposure to overseas assets. “Now is a better time to put money into private markets than two or three years ago, when valuations were more expensive and deals were quite scarce,” AustralianSuper Chief Investment Officer Mark Delaney said on Bloomberg TV in Melbourne on Monday. “The inability for a lot of US pension plans to recycle capital has meant that private deal opportunities are...

April 8, 2024
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