January 2021

19Jan

Thousands of UK savers advised to give up final-salary pensions

Tens of thousands of savers were recommended to give up valuable final-salary pensions by advisers using a popular charging model now banned owing to concerns it was fuelling mis-selling, according to data published by the regulator. Last October advisers were barred from providing defined benefit pension transfer advice using the contingent fee model, where they were only paid if the client decided to go ahead with a transfer recommendation. The Financial Conduct Authority acted after becoming concerned the contingent...

January 19, 2021
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19Jan

China:Pension system reform seen as imperative

The structural reform of China's pension system is imperative, and the country's aging population will be propelling an increase in demand for pension funds to be allocated to investments with sustainable returns and alternative solutions that provide long-term benefits, according to Ms Dong Mei, a partner and the head of Aged Care in KPMG China. In an article for China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily, she points to several overarching trends affecting the development of China's...

January 19, 2021
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19Jan

UK. Cushon unveils net-zero pension plan

Cushon, the fintech workplace savings disrupter, today announces that it has launched the world’s first net zero pension. Cushon’s pension is the first of its kind in that it is Net Zero now - not later - unlike competitors in the market who have long-reaching targets to achieve the same by 2030 or even 2050. The fund will have a management fee of just 0.15%, while offering highly competitive returns without sacrificing performance. Cushon’s Net Zero pension will enable...

January 19, 2021
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18Jan

China’s plan to ease the pension pressure

China's pension system has been continuously developed since its launch in 1951, with a focus mainly on public pensions. Through seven decades of development, China has made impressive strides in retirement payments, with a public pension coverage of almost 960 million people in 2019. However, the size of the pension in China is still relatively small, mainly due to a lack of a private pensions system that encompasses enterprise annuities, occupational annuities, and pensions for individuals. As it faces...

January 18, 2021
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18Jan

US. Reforming public pensions

By Nadeem Jeddy Government employees need lifelong incomes to stay independent and promote public interest. Private employees serve no higher cause. Replacing public pensions with traditional defined contribution (DC) schemes like Voluntary Pension System (VPS) and provident funds (PFs) will destroy the security of lifelong incomes. Government employees will be forced to take greater interest in personal finance. New forms of malfeasance will emerge that will be hard to catch and difficult to reverse. A better alternative would be to offer...

January 18, 2021
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18Jan

Australia. Why we should stick with the 12pc super guarantee rate

By Karen Maley If Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was hoping that the eagerly awaited Callaghan retirement income review might help him resolve the fiendishly difficult political problem of what to do with the superannuation guarantee levy, he'll be deeply disappointed. The Morrison government is facing intense pressure from a group of hardline backbenchers to scrap the long-legislated increase in employers' compulsory contribution to their workers' super from 9.5 per cent of wages to 12 per cent by 2025. Read more @AFR

January 18, 2021
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15Jan

UK Asset Owners and Managers to Form Sustainability Alliance

How can pension plans and financial managers boost sustainable investing? By forming a group to do so. Read also U.K. government cuts administration fees for smallest DC pots British asset owners and managers are forging an alliance with that in mind. It’s in response to greater calls from regulators in the country to further the fight against climate change and promote other societal goals. Read also U.K. corporate funds finish 2020 with increased deficits The steering group that convened this week...

January 15, 2021
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15Jan

China’s demographic time bomb quickly ticking down

China’s declining demographics are gloomier than previously estimated, a life and death challenge for the world’s second-largest economy policymakers have so far failed to address. Preliminary provincial findings of a nationwide census now underway indicate that population growth in 2019 plunged to a 60-year low, despite Beijing’s move in 2016 to abandon its notorious “one-child” policy. The 14.65 million newborns recorded across China last year were a third lower than the annual average throughout the 1990s and 2000s...

January 15, 2021
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15Jan

Why BlackRock’s CEO Says the Retirement Crisis Is Getting Worse

Even as BlackRock’s earnings surged in 2020, with the world’s largest asset manager benefiting from increased saving and investment, the coming retirement crisis in the U.S. is getting worse, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said. Read also Swiss APK designs new climate strategy for investments The three reasons are low interest rates, low savings rates, and more part-timers and self-employed people in the economy. Partly because of the low U.S. household savings rate, Fink said he believed the U.S. has required...

January 15, 2021
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14Jan

U.K. government cuts administration fees for smallest DC pots

U.K. defined contribution plans with £100 ($136) in assets or less will be exempt from paying administration fees, the government said Wednesday. A consultation into fee cap rules aimed at protecting automatically enrolled plan participants from paying high fees resulted in the government keeping the fee cap at its current level set at 0.75% of assets under management and administration. The consultation was launched in June. However, due to additional concerns raised by respondents to the consultation around the...

January 14, 2021
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