May 2020
13May

Millennials step into caregiving roles for aging parents

Millennial women already caring for aging parents or planning to do so are much more stressed about the caregiving responsibility than men, a new poll reveals. CaringAdvisor found 1 in 2 Millennials planning to care for aging parents say they want to do it. However, guilt was the biggest motivator, with about two-thirds admitting they’d feel guilty if they didn’t care for parents themselves. Women were more than two times as likely as men to be “extremely stressed” about...

May 13, 2020
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12May

Stock market wipes out Kenyan pensioners’ $350m in just three months

Kenyan retirees lost over Ksh35 billion ($350 million) to falling stock prices and soaring inflation as the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the country’s economy in the past three months. Read also Australia. COVID-19 has killed 12% superannuation A survey conducted by Zamara Consulting Actuaries covering 415 pension schemes with a total of Ksh852.4 billion ($8.52 billion) in assets under management shows that the returns on pensioners’ investments in the three months to March 31 dropped, prompting a shift from...

May 12, 2020
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12May

Covid-19 impact: Global pension funds pause India investment

Top global pension funds have suspended India investment plans until they come to grips with the damage Covid-19 does to global and local economies, and their portfolios stabilise amid extreme market volatility and uncertainty. Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP), Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Australian Super and Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec (CDPQ), among others, had slated billions of dollars in India directly, via private equity (PE) or other funds, but have either put plans on...

May 12, 2020
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12May

DB Funded Status Estimates Are Mixed in April

Firms that track defined benefit (DB) plan funded status reported a range of estimates for April—from a decrease of 0.1% to an increase of 4%, depending on the group of plans being tracked. The highest increase reported was 4% (to an 80% aggregate funding level), estimated by Mercer for pension plans sponsored by S&P 1500 companies. The firm says this was the result of an increase in equity markets, which offset a decrease in discount rates. As of April...

May 12, 2020
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12May

US. How COVID-19 Has Changed Retirement Planning

The global COVID-19 pandemic has touched virtually every aspect of our lives, not least of which is how we save for retirement. Forbes Advisor commissioned a YouGov survey of 9,675 U.S. adults to get a deeper read on how coronavirus has impacted retirement planning. The answers were surprising. With a near total lockdown on business activity in the U.S., we wanted to understand how people have begun to reorient their financial priorities. As Warren Buffett explained in the Berkshire...

May 12, 2020
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11May

US. Public Pensions Could Suffer for Years from Pandemic Losses

US public pension plan sponsors and administrators are likely entering a period of fiscal stress, and rising pension obligations caused by the sudden pandemic-induced recession are expected to be felt for years by US state and local governments, according to a report from S&P Global Ratings. S&P said US public pension funds in aggregate lost approximately $850 billion during the first quarter of the year, and that they would need to rebound sharply during the second quarter to maintain...

May 11, 2020
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11May

Protecting financial consumers during the COVID-19 crisis

Financial regulators around the world are struggling to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. As consumers’ financial circumstances deteriorate as a result of the crisis, it is crucial to ensure that financial institutions treat consumers fairly and bad behavior does not add to consumer suffering. International media and organizations have highlighted concerns, such as consumer over-indebtedness increasing quickly due to the crisis and fraudsters exploiting fears over the pandemic to target financial consumers. Regulators are recognizing...

May 11, 2020
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11May

Algeria approves 2-7% increase in retirement pensions

Algeria’s government has approved increases in retirement pensions ranging from 2% to 7%, the labour ministry said on Saturday, despite financial problems facing the oil exporting North African country. The OPEC member’s public finances have come under pressure after a sharp fall in global crude oil prices caused energy earnings, the main source of government revenue, to drop significantly. President Abdelmadjid Tennoune has already announced a 50% cut in public spending and delays to planned projects in several sectors...

May 11, 2020
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11May

Australia. COVID-19 has killed 12% superannuation

For years MacroBusiness has argued that Australia’s superannuation guarantee (SG) should not be raised from the current level of 9.5% to 12%. Our arguments against lifting the SG centre around four key issues. First, superannuation concessions are grossly inequitable and favour high income earners. This inequity is illustrated clearly by the below Australian Treasury chart, which shows that the top 1% of earners will receive roughly 14-times the taxpayer contributions to their personal superannuation accounts as the bottom 10%...

May 11, 2020
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11May

Covid-19, Longevity Risk & the Economics of Annuitization

Although the dire medical situation and mounting economic toll of covid-19 is of immediate and first-order importance, the virus has also prompted many to ponder their own mortality. Whether it’s doctors in emergency rooms who quickly redrafted codicils or nursing home attendants pondering their own DNR instructions, the randomness or mortality is being imprinted on our susceptible behavioral minds. Interestingly, preliminary and anecdotal evidence suggests a spike in the acquisition of life insurance policies over the last few months,...

May 11, 2020
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