July 2023

More to be done on sustainable investments despite ‘significant improvements’

The proportion of pension schemes seeking greater alignment or integration of sustainable investment beyond employer policies doubled from 20 per cent in 2021 to 40 per cent in 2022, analysis from Mercer has revealed. The group’s latest Responsible Investment Total Evaluation (Rite) report, which benchmarks around 1,000 schemes from across the defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) space, showed that schemes have made “significant improvements” in their sustainable investment credentials. In particular, the research found that 50 per cent of...

Fidelity Investments forms retail annuities and pension risk transfer focused reinsurer

US investment giant Fidelity Investments has formed Soteria Reinsurance Ltd., a newly incorporated Class C insurer registered in Bermuda that will focus on the US retail fixed annuities and pension risk transfer space. On June 20th, 2023, Soteria Re, which is owned directly by Soteria Reinsurance Holdings, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, was registered with the Bermuda Monetary Authority as a Class C insurer. In a brochure dated March 28th, 2023, Fidelity explained that...

Pension reform for St Vincent and the Grenadines

St Vincent and the Grenadines Finance Minister Camillo Gonsalves has warned that reform to the pension and benefit structure of the National Insurance Services (NIS) can begin as early as next year. Gonsalves wa briefing lawmakers on the finding of the 11th actuarial review of the National Insurance Services (NIS) and an independent analysis of the actuarial review, conducted by the World Bank’s Reserve Advisory and Management Partnership (RAMP). The Finance Minister told Parliament that according to the report, NIS reserves...

Inflation doesn’t always produce a bigger pension

Following the Great Recession and extending into the low-interest-rate environment of the 2010s, state legislatures reduced, suspended or eliminated cost-of-living adjustments among public plans in the name of protecting pension systems' health. Their record is decidedly more mixed during the recent run-up in inflation and interest rates, rejecting COLAs for underfunded pension plans and offering one-time supplemental payments to retirees as a compromise between COLAs and nothing. "My general observation is that it seems to be politically easier to reduce COLAs...

How a Vast Demographic Shift Will Reshape the World

U.N. World Population Prospects 2022 Young populations are those in which at least a quarter of the population is under age 15. In old populations, at least a quarter of the population is 65 or older. The world’s demographics have already been transformed. Europe is shrinking. China is shrinking, with India, a much younger country, overtaking it this year as the world’s most populous nation. But what we’ve seen so far is just the beginning. The projections are reliable, and stark: By...

How “old economy” companies can be an innovative investment

Innovative companies don’t need to be those that are early stage or particularly associated with technology, according to some long established investors. Francois De Bruin, who runs the Aviva Investors Global Endurance fund, told FTAdviser Vantage Point that long established companies in areas of the old economy, such as Costco, are able to win market share relative to rivals due to what he calls “network effects”, and share the benefits with their customers. Network effects are those which mean that the...

China to expand national pilot project for hospice care, further improve humanistic care for elderly with an aging society

China will expand its national pilot project for hospice care with a third batch of pilot areas, further improving humanistic care for the elderly and the terminally ill across the country, a move to cope with the nation's rapidly aging population. China's National Health Commission (NHC) has issued a notice announcing the third batch of places, which include three provincial-level places - Beijing, East China's Zhejiang, Central China's Hunan - and another 61 cities or districts such as Nankai district...

Ahorro para el retiro y cultura previsional en México

  En México sí se tiene el hábito de ahorrar, esta acción se aprende desde temprana edad y aunque los medios son diversos, todos consisten en cambiar parte del consumo actual para cumplir metas financieras en el futuro. Sin embargo, hace falta una sólida cultura previsional que permita alcanzar las metas de largo plazo como lo es el ahorro para el retiro. De acuerdo con la Encuesta Nacional de Inclusión Financiera (ENIF), edición 2021, seis de cada 10 personas realizaron alguna...

Colombia. Fondos de pensiones fueron los mayores vendedores de acciones en la bolsa en junio

Lideraron en ventas de títulos como la preferencial de Bancolombia, cementos argos e isa. Los agentes extranjeros también destacaron por ventas Las inversiones suelen ser el día a día de muchas personas y empresas, e incluso, de los fondos de pensiones, que, como bien se sabe, van administrando los ahorros de los cotizantes en diversas inversiones que generen rentabilidad, mientras las personas esperan cumplir la edad necesaria para reclamar este dinero y los frutos de dichas inversiones. Pero, esto va más...

US. Worst American City for Pensions Confronts a $35 Billion Crisis

One of Brandon Johnson’s first moves as Chicago mayor was to buy himself time to address the city’s biggest financial problem: the more than $35 billion owed to its pension funds. Just days after his May inauguration, Johnson persuaded state lawmakers to shelve legislation that would’ve added billions to the pension debt, while pledging to establish a working group to come up with solutions by October. Now, the clock is ticking for the progressive Democrat to fix the worst pension crisis...