May 2022
09May

US. EBRI: Challenges Aside, Retirement Confidence Remains High

Despite the pandemic and inflation, American workers and retirees remain optimistic about living a comfortable retirement—and one key factor that has helped is having a workplace retirement savings plan. This is according to the 32nd annual Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS) measuring worker and retirement confidence conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Greenwald Research. In fact, in 2022, 82% of workers who are offered a workplace retirement savings plan are satisfied with it—a finding that has remained steady...

May 9, 2022
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UK, Risk, Pension management
09May

Windfall tax on oil giants won’t hurt British pensioners, thinktank finds

Britain’s main pension funds own less than 0.2% of Shell and BP shares, undermining claims that a windfall tax on big oil companies would harm the retirement incomes of UK savers. A review of the oil giants’ shares by the Common Wealth thinktank shows the largest holdings are by US investment companies, including BlackRock and Vanguard, and the wealthy Norwegian pension funds. The UK’s multibillion-pound defined contribution occupational pension funds, which hold the savings of tens of millions of workers,...

May 9, 2022
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09May

US. Another crypto issue: Is there really demand?

The big question now for cryptocurrency investing in defined contribution plans is how amenable sponsors, participants and consultants will be to accepting these offerings to augment retirement savings. Even before Fidelity Investments announced a program that would let participants invest up to 20% of their 401(k) accounts in cryptocurrency, NEPC LLC detected a "meaningful increase from clients asking for education on crypto within 401(k) plans," William Ryan, Chicago-based partner and head of defined contribution plan solutions at the investment consultant,...

May 9, 2022
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06May

US. Pension Risk Transfer Market Has Largest First Quarter in History

The pension risk transfer market had a total volume of $5.5 billion in the first quarter of 2022, according to a report by Legal & General. This is the largest first quarter for the PRT market in history. It represents a 45% increase from last year’s first-quarter volume of $3.8 billion and a 22% increase from 2020’s first-quarter volume of $4.5 billion. Two deals made during Q1 of 2020 were over $1 billion in volume. Read also U.S. corporate pension...

May 6, 2022
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06May

UK. State pension to hit £10,600 as triple lock returns – up to £1,000 extra income next year

The State Pension could rise by almost £1,000 to more than £10,600 a year as inflation rockets past 10 percent and the triple lock is restored. Read also UK. Less than third of schemes regularly track individual fund performance This would be the single biggest increase ever and could see the new State Pension top £10,600 a year. However, those who retired before April 6, 2016, on the old State Pension will get a smaller increase. Yesterday, the Bank of England forecast...

May 6, 2022
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06May

Half of Hong Kong women face retirement income challenges

Only one in three women say they are confident in their ability to make their pension contributions, whereas 40% of men say the same, according to the Fidelity’s Global Women & Money Study 2022. Read also Millennials Will Make Impact Investing Mainstream Due to the lack of confidence in financial planning, 46% of the surveyed Hong Kong women are worried they are unprepared financially for retirement, while 43% of men felt the same. Read also On the path to bigger income in...

May 6, 2022
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06May

Malta. Pensions drive up social security spending that hits €322 million mark in first three months

Expenditure on social security benefits in the first three months totalled €322 million, an increase of €65.8 million over the same quarter last year. The increase was almost all due to contributory expenditure, in particular pensions. The additional expenditure is five times higher than the increase in social security benefits in the first quarter between 2021 and 2020. The National Statistics Office said contributory expenditure increased by €66 million, while non-contributory outlay fell marginally by €0.3 million. Pensions in respect of retirement...

May 6, 2022
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06May

On the path to bigger income in the future – news in Latvia’s Pension Law

Too often than not residents in Latvia do not follow their pension, because in most cases the word pension is something they associate with the far future. Additionally, people sometimes do not understand how their pension is calculated. In reality, however, it is all simple – the future pension «grows» little by little every day. The pension amount depends on two main indexes: residents’ paid tax amount and how much the saved up money is able to earn residents...

May 6, 2022
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05May

U.S. corporate pension plan funding rises in April

U.S. corporate defined benefit plan funding ratios rose in April despite poor market returns, primarily due to rising discount rates, which lowered liability values, three reports show. In Wilshire Advisors' monthly report, the aggregate funding ratio for U.S. corporate pension plans increased by 30 basis points in April, to 97.4% as of April 30 from 97.1% as of March 31. While assets fell 7.7 percentage points due to a troubled equities market in February, liability values offset those losses by dropping...

May 5, 2022
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05May

Zimbabwe: Pensioners Lose Billions to Financial Abuse

Zimbabwe´s senior citizens have been getting swindled out of billions of United States dollars and the trend is only getting worse as inflation sinks its teeth deep into their pockets. Read also Kenya. Cash-strapped KBC fails to remit Sh984m in pension This came out during a debate in the National Assembly over the Insurance and Pensioners Amendment Bill. Former finance minister Tendai Biti, contributing to the debate, claimed at least US$9 billion worth of pensioners funds has been lost in the past...

May 5, 2022
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