April 2022

Ghana. Access to pension benefits now easier – NPRA

The Chief Executive Officer of the National Pensions Regulatory Authority, (NPRA), Hayford Attah-Krufi, has stated that pensioners do not need lawyers to access their pension benefits after retirement. Mr Attah-Krufi said the days when pensioners had to go through severe struggle to access their benefits were over as pragmatic measures had been put in place for pensioners to access their benefits at ease. He said the authority had directed the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to fast-track the claim...

US. 2022 HSA Conference: HSA Education and Communication

Without significant education, many employees do not understand their HSA benefits. They often get them confused with flexible spending accounts, for example, or they fail to see how HSAs could affect their own circumstances with regard to financial wellness and retirement savings. This was the conclusion of a panel of industry experts at the 2022 PLANSPONSOR-PLANADVISER HSA Conference, which discussed the “what,” “how” and “when” for HSA education and communication. The goal of the discussion was to help plan advisers,...

ESG, SRI, Impact Investing: What Are They, How to Get Started, and How Funds Have Performed

What is ESG, SRI, and impact investing, and how have ESG funds performed? ESG, SRI, and impact investing may seem like last decade's buzzwords, but they now have enough capital and data behind them for investors to pay attention to. ESG stands for environmental, social, and (corporate) governance. ESG investors look for companies that lead in those areas in addition to strong financial returns. Broadly speaking, ESG investors, socially responsible investors (SRI), and impact investors invest in companies that are both financial...

Chile’s lower house votes on dueling pension withdrawal bills

Chile’s lower house will debate and vote on two proposals for early withdrawal of pensions on Monday, one by legislators and another by President Gabriel Boric, who is seeking to juggle inflation and populist demands. Leftist legislators are proposing a 10% withdrawal but Boric and Finance Minister Mario Marcel have said it would worsen spiraling inflation. In March, Chile reported its highest monthly inflation rate – 1.9% – since 1993. According to the government, Boric’s plan represents a fifth of the...

China may see negative population growth in 2022, 12 years earlier than UN prediction: experts

Experts said that population aging may lead China to count more deaths than births in 2022, 12 years earlier than the UN predicted. They suggested boosting commercial insurance to support the elderly given the current inadequate old age welfare system. Chinese people aged over 65 have surpassed 14% of the total population in 2021, which is an important indicator and means the country has formally become an aged society, said Zheng Bingwen, director of the Center for International Social Security...

UK. PensionBee publishes gender pay gap figures for 2021

PensionBee, a leading online pension provider, has revealed a median hourly pay gap of just 1.6%, and a median bonus pay gap of 0% among its staff, as at 31 December 2021. The gap is in line with PensionBee’s target of 0%, with a variance of +/- 5% owing to the overall size of the employee base. This is the second year that PensionBee has voluntarily reported on its pay gap, as part of its commitment to wage equality, in...

World Bank cuts 2022 global growth outlook on Russia invasion

The World Bank cut its forecast for global economic expansion this year on Russia's invasion of Ukraine and is planning to mobilize a funding package bigger than the COVID-19 response for nations to deal with various resulting and ongoing crises. The institution lowered its estimate for global growth in 2022 to 3.2% from a January prediction of 4.1%, President David Malpass told reporters on a call on Monday. The decline was spurred by a cut in the outlook for Europe...

Argentina has too many pensioners, according to an IMF report

A recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has underlined the fact that Argentina has a larger proportion of citizens earning pensions when compared to other countries in the world. The IMF document also stressed many of those allowances were disproportionately high when compared to wages of active workers in OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries, which include the United States, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Spain. The report is dated March 25 and is attached to the understanding...

US. The age for required withdrawals from retirement accounts could go higher. Here’s who would benefit

Required minimum distributions, or RMDs, are amounts that must be withdrawn annually from qualified retirement savings accounts. If the RMD age is raised to 75 from 72, it would provide more time to move assets to a Roth individual retirement account, which comes with no RMDs during the owner’s lifetime. There are some instances when you may not want to convert money from a traditional 401(k) plan or IRA to a Roth. Some future retirees could end up getting...

Ireland. Pension bill will rise €7m a year by end of the decade

The government will be paying €7 billion a year more on pensions and healthcare for retired people by the end of the decade, the Department of Finance has warned, as it included Ireland’s ageing demographic on a list of risks to the economy released last week. John McCarthy, the department’s chief economist, said spending on older people would rise steadily over the coming years, while the cost of borrowing was also likely to rise and the economy would be vulnerable...