June 2026

US. Investment Returns Outweigh Small Liability Jump for Pension Finances

Surging investment returns outpaced slow-growing liabilities in May, bringing the funded status of the 100 largest U.S. corporate defined benefit pension funds to 109.6%—the highest ratio recorded since the 109.9% mark observed in July 2001—according to Milliman’s Pension Funding Index. Thanks to last month’s robust 2.22% investment return, more than quadruple Milliman’s expected rate of 0.53%, the market value of Milliman 100 plan assets grew $22 billion during May. The projected pension liability for Milliman 100 plans increased by $4 billion over...

South Africa. Has the retirement industry underestimated inflation risk?

The South African Reserve Bank's higher-for-longer interest rate outlook and revised inflation expectations have sharpened a critical challenge for retirement savers and funds: generating real returns is becoming more difficult, annuity pricing and liability assumptions may need recalibration, and portfolios designed for a low-inflation environment could struggle to deliver the outcomes members expect. For years, trustee agendas have been dominated by corporate governance, regulatory compliance, and investment performance. But as the macroeconomic landscape shifts, it’s becoming clear that parts of the industry...

US. NYC comptroller launches search for new pension fund asset managers

New York City Comptroller Mark Levine announced Friday that the city’s pension funds would undertake a search for new asset managers to provide passive indexing of public equity stocks for the city’s five public pensions systems. Levine and the city’s pension funds said the search specifically includes seeking indexes that are weighted by market capitalization, alternatively weighted or those based on ESG factors and limits on carbon, so long as they are consistent with each pension system’s investment guidelines, according...

Reforms could relieve German budget by up to €60 billion, Ifo says

Germany's financial situation could be improved by up to €60 billion ($70 billion) annually ​by 2030 with a series of economic ‌reforms, calculations by the Ifo Institute showed on Tuesday. The study, commissioned by the employer-funded think tank New Social ​Free Market Initiative, shows that the government ​could generate around €54 billion through changes to pension ⁠insurance, parental allowance and subsidies. An additional €6 billion ​could be generated through growth-promoting investments at the ​federal level. “To achieve that, reform packages need to...

What one country’s experiment says about attempts to boost birth rates

Sitting on a park bench in the eastern Hungarian city of Debrecen, Barbara Elek is nervously refreshing her emails. She and her husband Levi are waiting to find out if Barbara is pregnant, after their third round of IVF 10 days ago. "If it doesn't succeed, then obviously I'll be devastated, and then the last resort will be trying to make sure that, at least financially, we don't lose everything," she tells BBC Global Women. Like many other young Hungarian couples...

US. Federal Rescue Stabilizes Pension Benefits for 1.8 Million Workers

A new Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on multiemployer pension plans lands at a tense moment: a $77.9 billion federal rescue program enacted under the Biden administration has stabilized the retirement benefits of 1.8 million workers, but unresolved questions about improper payments, structural vulnerabilities, and the long-term health of hundreds of plans are now up to a Republican Congress and a Trump administration with a very different view of federal intervention in private sector pensions. More than 11 million workers...

Should Ghana introduce a universal pension for elderly citizens?

As Ghana continues to debate the future of its pension system, an important question is emerging in public policy discussions: Should every elderly Ghanaian receive a basic state pension, regardless of whether they contributed to a formal pension scheme? The question is both timely and necessary. Across Ghana, thousands of elderly citizens who spent their productive years farming, trading, fishing, artisan work, caregiving, and other forms of informal employment now find themselves facing old age without any reliable source of...

Retirement Wealth Across Europe: A Country-by-Country Comparison

Retirement wealth differs greatly across European nations, affecting living standards in ways that go beyond what pension income alone can provide, according to the European Central Bank's Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) released in mid-2023. In certain countries, older households possess more than 30 times the wealth of their counterparts elsewhere, illustrating how housing, pensions, and family assistance influence financial security in later years. Within the euro area, households aged 65 to 74 have a median net wealth of EUR185,300....

Zambia. Pensions Authority urges strong gov­ernance in pen­sion sec­tor

PENSIONS and Insur­ance Author­ity (PIA) regis­trar and chief exec­ut­ive officer Namakau Ntini says strong gov­ernance is the found­a­tion of sus­tain­able pen­sion sys­tems as it pro­motes account­ab­il­ity, trans­par­ency and prudent man­age­ment of retire­ment sav­ings. Mrs Ntini said the pen­sion industry is oper­at­ing in an increas­ingly com­plex envir­on­ment char­ac­ter­ised by eco­nomic uncer­tainty, chan­ging demo­graph­ics, tech­no­lo­gical dis­rup­tion, cli­mate-related risks and evolving mem­ber expect­a­tions. She said strong gov­ernance remains the found­a­tion upon which sus­tain­able pen­sion sys­tems are built, as it pro­motes account­ab­il­ity, prudent decision-mak­ing, trans­par­ency,...

New Zealand. Pensioners facing $100 a week rent rise

Pensioners could face rent hikes of almost $100 per week under an Ashburton District Council proposal. The council currently charges 55% of the market rate for some of its 102 elderly persons housing units, but is looking at increasing it to an 80% minimum. This would mean rent increases from $4 to $96, depending on whether the residents could access Government accommodation support. The elderly person housing units are situated in six complexes spread throughout Ashburton, Methven, and Rakaia in Canterbury. In 2021,...