January 2023

China’s Population Falls, Heralding a Demographic Crisis

The world’s most populous country has reached a pivotal moment: China’s population has begun to shrink, after a steady, yearslong decline in its birthrate that experts say is irreversible. The government said on Tuesday that 9.56 million people were born in China last year, while 10.41 million people died. It was the first time deaths had outnumbered births in China since the Great Leap Forward, Mao Zedong’s failed economic experiment that led to widespread famine and death in the 1960s. Chinese...

Bank of England says shake-up of insurance rules increases risks

The Bank of England on Monday warned that a much-heralded overhaul to insurance rules “increases risk” and could result in a corporate failure that ultimately hits the public purse. The BoE’s top officials also sounded alarm bells about other aspects of the government’s sweeping plan to turbocharge the City of London’s growth, warning that some of the changes could jeopardise financial stability. The comments from BoE governor Andrew Bailey, and Sam Woods, head of its Prudential Regulation Authority, came a month...

US. Life expectancy can have a greater impact than even record high inflation on how long your retirement savings will last

Given today’s ongoing high inflation, many Americans worry they may not have put away enough money for retirement. They fear that sharp increases in food and energy prices and transportation and medical care costs could significantly affect their retirement savings. Yet there’s another important factor to consider: your life expectancy. A new report from the TIAA Institute and George Washington University reveals that more than half of American adults don’t know how long people generally tend to live in retirement, which...

U.S. funds turn to fixed income for relief

Pension plan execs looking forward to better environment U.S. pension fund executives expect to navigate a recession by the end of 2023, but while the market return environment is set to remain challenging, they see opportunities re-emerging in fixed income. While they are unsure of just how challenging, they are convinced of one thing: a recession almost certainly looms in the coming year. "My crystal ball is a bit cloudy," said Christopher J. Ailman, chief investment officer at the $307.2 billion California...

Ghana. Private pension funds control 71% of industry’s assets

Private pension funds hace maintained their strong growth over the years, reaching a record hig of GH28Billion in 2021 from the previus year´s GH28Billion. the increse represents 27 èrcent, with private pension funds - the mandatory 2nd Tier and voluntary 3rd Tier schemes - now controlling a 71 percent share of the industry´s total assets under managment (AUM) in the year under reviw, latest data from the National Pension Regulatory (NPRA) show. A Breakdown of private schemes shows that 2nd Tier...

South Korea:Govt to reform national health insurance and pension schemes

The government will begin earnest discussions to boost the sustainability of the national health insurance system and plans to unveil reform measures by September. The Health Ministry has drawn up a plan to devise preliminary measures this month to improve the overall fiscal sustainability of health insurance coverage, according to a report by KBS World. The measures are expected to include some of those mentioned in a public hearing last year aimed at removing fiscal loopholes, such as stronger monitoring of...

South Africa. Struggle war vets demand R10.5bn payout

The 2 500-strong group of Liberation Struggle War Veterans are resolute in their demand for a one-off payment of R10.5 billion in reparations, amounting to R4.2 million per individual veteran, as part of their submissions on Monday on the proposed military pension legislation. Aside from this, the former soldiers, who fought during apartheid for the freedom of black people in South Africa, are also demanding the government pay a pension of R36 million per annum, which translates into R15 000...

US. Retirement legislation to cool off after SECURE 2.0

The retirement industry received some welcome news late last year when lawmakers passed another major bipartisan retirement security package, but industry sources aren't expecting 2023 to yield many more legislative victories when it comes to retirement issues. "Everything that they could find where there was bipartisan agreement made it into this bill," said Michael P. Kreps, Washington-based principal and co-chairman of the retirement services practice at Groom Law Group, about SECURE 2.0, a retirement security bill attached to a $1.7...

UN report calls for re-thinking social protection as the world ages

The World Social Report 2023 calls for concrete measures to support the greying global population, amidst escalating pension and healthcare costs. Population ageing is a defining global trend of our time, according to the study, published by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). Countries can reap the benefits by giving everyone the chance to grow older in good health by promoting equal opportunities from birth. “Together, we can address today’s inequalities for the benefit of tomorrow’s generations, managing the...

US. The Value of Corporate Pension Assets Fell Dramatically. Here’s Why That Doesn’t Matter

Corporate pension funds had a boring year — if the only measure you look at is funded status. After all, according to WTW data published recently, funded status — the amount a pension has on hand to meet obligations — stayed flat year-over-year at 95 percent. Goldman Sachs data on corporate plans, meanwhile, estimates that funded status increased, from 98 percent in 2021 to 100 percent in 2022. But these numbers obfuscate the level of volatility that corporate plan investors faced...