October 2025
23Oct

Ageing populations to reshape the future of life insurance: Swiss Re

Swiss Re, the reinsurance company based in Zurich, reports that demographic changes are set to transform the life insurance industry over the coming decades. In its latest sigma publication, the company highlights that by 2050, around one quarter of people in advanced economies will be aged 65 or older. This development, often referred to as the “Silver Economy”, is expected to redefine the types of protection and financial solutions needed as societies age. According to Swiss Re, the combination of longer...

October 23, 2025
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23Oct

MetLife Finds Most Companies Intend to Divest Pension Liabilities Within 5 Years

September marked the sixth consecutive month of improvement for corporate pension funding, according to Zorast Wadia, a principal and actuary at Milliman. The funded status of the largest 100 corporate defined benefit plans reached 106.5%, its highest level since October 2007—just before the global financial crisis. 2025 has been a “tailwind of a year for pension finances,” says Brian Donohue, a partner in October Three Consulting. There is still time left in the year’s fourth quarter, and he says companies...

October 23, 2025
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22Oct

UK. Retirement investment solution providers urged to seize innovation opportunities

Retirement investment solution providers should “seize the day” amid rising asset levels that are providing opportunities for innovation, according to a report from NextWealth. NextWealth stated that assets in retirement investment solutions were on the cusp of a significant growth spurt. With the first cohort of ‘pension freedom’ retirees reaching 75, there is a growing imperative for innovation, which has been dominated by Royal London’s Governed Retirement Income Portfolios (GRIP), the firm said. If GRIPs were removed, the assets held in solutions...

October 22, 2025
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22Oct

US. Corporate Pension Funding Ratios Hit Highest Level Since 2007

The funded ratio for the largest 100 corporate defined benefit plans improved to 106.5% in September, the highest level since October 2007 (108.1%) and up from 106.3% in August, according to Milliman’s pension funding index. September’s market returns of 2.5% added $26 billion to the market value of plan assets and swelled the funding status surplus to $80 billion last month. Meanwhile, discount rates dropped 17 basis points to 5.36%, which raised plan liabilities by $22 billion. During the third...

October 22, 2025
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22Oct

Mental exercise can reverse a brain change linked to aging, study finds

Scientists are reporting the first compelling evidence in people that cognitive training can boost levels of a brain chemical that typically declines with age. A 10-week study of people 65 or older found that doing rigorous mental exercises for 30 minutes a day increased levels of the chemical messenger acetylcholine by 2.3% in a brain area involved in attention and memory. The increase "is not huge," says Étienne de Villers-Sidani, a neurologist at McGill University in Montreal. "But it's significant, considering that you get a...

October 22, 2025
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22Oct

A Closer Look at the Retirement Prospects of the Middle Class

Representing more than half of the U.S. population, people in the middle class embody the American dream by working hard, caring for their families, and saving for the future while navigating an ever-changing economy and society. So how are they addressing these complexities? In “Retirement Throughout the Ages: The American Middle Class,” the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies (TCRS) in collaboration with Transamerica Institute examines the road to retirement for people in the middle class across age ranges, their life...

October 22, 2025
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21Oct

Failed low-carbon transition could wipe 33% off pension fund returns

The immediate costs of a low-carbon economy transition are significantly outweighed by the costs of continued inaction, research from Ortec Finance has found, estimating that a failed low-carbon transition could wipe up to 33 per cent off pension fund returns worldwide by 2050. As part of its analysis, Ortec Finance applied its proprietary 2025 climate scenarios to the investment portfolios of 180 pension funds across the six largest global pension systems, revealing the consequences of further delaying the net-zero transition. This...

October 21, 2025
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21Oct

Britain’s biggest pension funds back regional growth drive

20 of Britain’s largest pension providers and insurers set to launch Sterling 20 group at first-ever Regional Investment Summit on Tuesday. Investment drive kicks off with Legal & General (L&G) and Nest committing billions to build more affordable housing, improve broadband connections in rural areas and provide scale-up finance for growing businesses. Chancellor set to meet providers and Australia’s biggest fund in Birmingham as government ramps up efforts to drive regional growth and put more money into people’s pockets through the...

October 21, 2025
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21Oct

Japan’s GPIF underlines impact shift in sustainability report

Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), the world’s largest pension fund with ¥260trn (€1.5trn) in assets under management, has taken a further step towards adoption of a more impact-oriented investment strategy with the publication of its latest ‘Sustainability Investment’ report. The name change for an annual publication previously known as an ESG report seeks to entrench GPIF’s move towards a more sustainability-linked investment strategy that considered social and environmental impact in addition to ESG-related measures. The shift in thinking was signalled in policies...

October 21, 2025
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21Oct

US. Options for Overfunded Pension Plans

You’ve done a good job making sure that the pension plan is fully funded. So good, in fact, that you — and the plan — are overachievers and the plan is fully funded and then some. And THAT surplus spells…opportunity. The Grist Funding of pension plans generally has been on an upward trajectory for a number of years. The improvement in funded status has been dramatic, yet incremental. Willis Towers Watson’s figures show as much: they show that the funding of a hypothetical benchmark...

October 21, 2025
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