September 2021
02Sep

More Than 4 Billion People Have No Social Protection as COVID-19 Wreaks Havoc

The International Labor Organization reports more than 4 billion people globally have no social protection at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is wreaking havoc upon their lives and livelihoods. Read also World Social Protection Report 2020–22 The ILO's World Social Protection Report 2020-2022 reveals the extent to which COVID-19 has devastated the world of work. It exposes the inequality between the rich countries that are beginning to rebound from the economic distress of the pandemic and the developing countries that...

September 2, 2021
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
02Sep

South Africa. Govt revokes proposal to force employees to contribute to state-run pension fund

Mandy Wiener interviews Isobel Frye, Director at the Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute. The Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute is disappointed that the government has withdrawn the green paper proposing mandatory contributions to a pension fund It says the response to the green paper by organised business was not “in good faith” Read also Plan for early pension access in South Africa could do more harm than good, authorities warn "There were far too many wide-ranging and negative impacts...

September 2, 2021
News, Slider
Read more...
02Sep

UK. Draft CDC regulations hampered by poor definitions, industry warns

The government’s consultation into draft regulations governing collective defined contribution schemes requires more work on definitions if these pension funds are to be properly implemented, with the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association warning it could create a “back door” for unscrupulous employers. In a CDC scheme, contribution rates for employers and employees are set in advance, and members pool investment and longevity risk. These pension funds provide income in retirement, though the rate of increase varies and pension reductions are...

September 2, 2021
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
02Sep

Can Insurers Be a Pension Safety Net?

Pensions are complicated enough without employers passing the buck onto someone else, but increasingly, that is what's happening. In exchange for buying a group annuity, employers are transferring their pension-paying obligations to life insurance companies, who pay the pension. The practice, known as pension risk transfer or de-risking, has implications for how pensions are protected and whether the payments are off limits to creditors. About 33 million Americans still participate in private pension plans, according to the federal Pension...

September 2, 2021
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
02Sep

US. Suburban residents risk losing homes over rising pension costs

By Amy Korte Patricia Hill grew up in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood dreaming of one day owning a home. She and her husband accomplished that dream in 2003 when they moved to the suburb of Matteson to raise their two daughters. They bought a two-story home in a quiet neighborhood for $315,000. Her property taxes were $7,800 for 2004. But Hill’s home is now worth less than she paid for it back in ’03. Meanwhile, her property taxes have done anything...

September 2, 2021
News, OP Ed, Slider, , ,
Read more...
01Sep

US. Many Teacher Pension Plans Get Failing Grade: New Report

Roughly three-quarters of states offer teachers a retirement plan that isn’t making the grade, according to a ranking released Tuesday. Just 13 states received either a B or a C grade overall in Bellwether Education Partner’s latest look at teacher retirement plans. None received an A. South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington, Utah and New York scored closest, topping the nonprofit organization’s new ranking. Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Kentucky New Jersey and Illinois rounded out the bottom five states. Most teachers are enrolled in a defined-benefit...

September 1, 2021
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
01Sep

Sustainability Gains In Asset Management, Led By Marketing

Asset managers are paying more attention to ESG — environmental, social and governance — concerns, according to a recent report from Northern Trust. “While many European markets have long made ESG a focus in their investment strategies, other mature markets in parts of North America and Asia have had a less straightforward approach,” Northern Trust reported, although recently Canadian asset managers have moved ahead of the U.S. “Alongside the pandemic, the summer of 2020 brought a global reckoning with racism, originating...

September 1, 2021
News, Slider, , , ,
Read more...
01Sep

UK’s biggest pension scheme set to screen investments based on workforce diversity

The UK’s largest workplace pension scheme Nest has joined forces with the Church of England Pension Board to sign up to a new charter committing them to screen their investments taking account of gender and ethnicity diversity. It marks a significant step towards tackling the asset management industry’s serial image problem, namely, that they’re all male, pale and stale. A study run by investment data firm reveal more funds in the UK are run by men called Dave than by women. Now...

September 1, 2021
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
01Sep

US. Indiana Public Retirement System posts net 23.1% return for fiscal year

Indiana Public Retirement System, Indianapolis, returned a preliminary net 23.1% for the fiscal year ended June 30. The preliminary net return of the system's $38 billion defined benefit plan was higher than its policy benchmark return of 22.4% in the year ended June 30 as well as in other reported time periods as of the same date. For the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, the DB plan returned preliminary annualized net returns of 10.7%, 9.9% and 7%, respectively,...

September 1, 2021
News, Slider, ,
Read more...

August 2021
31Aug

Does the U.S. have a retirement crisis?

By Alicia H. Munnell At the end of a recent conference, the perennial question arose — once again — as to whether the United States faces a retirement crisis. Read also U.S. corporate pension funding rises in August – 2 reports I’ve never been wedded to the word “crisis,” but the Center’s National Retirement Risk Index (NRRI) suggests that about half of today’s working-age households are at risk of not being able to maintain their standard of living in retirement. While the...

August 31, 2021
News, OP Ed, Slider, ,
Read more...