August 2019

23Aug

US. Pension fund joins action against Facebook

The California State Teachers' Retirement System has joined a derivatives case against Facebook in regards to Cambridge Analytica. The litigation at hand is a pending derivative lawsuit against Facebook's leadership, including the social media company's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg. CalSTRS said intervening in the existing derivative suit will give it the opportunity to pursue corporate governance reform. Its aim is to "protect Facebook's profitability, strengthen the resiliency of its business model and enhance the long-term value of Facebook as...

August 23, 2019
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23Aug

Pan-Africa pensions and actuarial firm, Zamara enters Uganda as Alexander Forbes quits market

Alexander Forbes Financial Services Uganda Limited has rebranded to Zamara Actuaries, Administrators and Consultants (U) Limited, following the exit of the South African financial services group from Uganda. In a statement released on August 21, 2019, Alexander Forbes confirmed that they had sold their 51% stake in the Ugandan operation to Kent Holdings Limited- who previously owned 49% of the Ugandan operations. “Alexander Forbes Emerging Markets (AFEM) and Kent Holdings are pleased to announce that an agreement has been...

August 23, 2019
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22Aug

US Corporate DB Pension Funding Falls $11 Billion in July

The funded status of the 100 largest corporate defined benefit pension plans fell $11 billion in July as the funded ratio dropped to 87.9% from 88.4% at the end of June, according to consulting firm Milliman. The Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index (PFI) showed that the funded status deficit grew to $216 billion from $205 billion at the end of June due to a drop in the benchmark corporate bond interest rates used to value pension liabilities. However, the...

August 22, 2019
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22Aug

UK firm to unveil ‘abridged’ advice pension transfer tool

Digital financial advice firm Wealth Wizards is rolling out a tool to allow advisers to offer abridged advice around defined benefit (DB) pension transfers. Abridged advice, which was mentioned during a recent Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) consultation, is a concept that sees IFAs give a short form of advice that can only result in not to transfer DB pensions, based on a high-level assessment of a client’s circumstances. Wealth Wizards plans to offer the service to advisers as a...

August 22, 2019
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22Aug

Australia. Pensioners set to get a small pay rise in a matter of weeks

Pensioners will have more money in their pockets in a matter of weeks with a change to deeming rates coinciding with a scheduled pay rise. Single pensioners now receive $926.20 a fortnight, while a pensioner couple receives $698.10 each a fortnight. The pay rise, due to take effect on September 20, will give single pensioners around $1 day extra – just enough for a coffee from 7-Eleven – and a little less for couples. Changes to the deeming rate...

August 22, 2019
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22Aug

UK.Comparing pensions is more complicated than it might seem

RUTH Wishart’s article (Principle on which we base the state pension is flawed, August 20) is itself seriously flawed. Ruth says “the whole principle on which we base the state pension is flawed at base camp by utilising a statutory cut-off point. Life expectancy varies by more than 10 years just between different districts in Scotland’s major cities”. Whilst true, this is but one of the of many factors that influence how many years (if any) an individual can...

August 22, 2019
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22Aug

Participants’ Posture on ESG Investing Not Showing in Retirement Plans

The 2019 Survey of Plan Sponsors and Retirement Savers from American Century Investments found 90% of defined contribution (DC) retirement plan sponsors who offered or are considering offering environmental, social and governance (ESG) investments believe their participants would be interested. However, only 37% of participants actually expressed some interest in ESG options. Diane Gallagher, vice president, retirement value add, American Century Investments, in Kansas City, Missouri, notes that those individuals would be interested if the ESG investment’s performance was...

August 22, 2019
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21Aug

Japan’s Pension Fund Warns of Global Investing Losses

Global markets have become so synchronized that money managers risk losing on every front, according to Hiromichi Mizuno, chief investment officer of the world’s largest pension fund. Japan’s $1.5 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund lost money in equities, fixed-income and currency positions in the last three months of 2018, Mizuno pointed out on Tuesday in Sacramento, California. Read also World’s Biggest Pension Fund Adds $2.4 Billion “Conventional wisdom of portfolio diversification is when we lose money in equity we make...

August 21, 2019
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21Aug

UK. Pension age hike plan called ‘chilling and immoral’ by Baroness Ros Altmann

Tory Iain Duncan Smith's proposal to hike the pension age to 75 has been branded "chilling and immoral" - by a Tory former pensions minister. Ros Altmann said retraining people older than 50 to find jobs should be a greater priority than the plan, dreamed up by Mr Duncan Smith's Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) think tank. The CSJ said the state pension age should rise to 70 by 2028, and then to 75 by 2035. Read also...

August 21, 2019
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21Aug

Statistics indicate more Kenyans now willing to save

According to industry figures, there has been enormous appetite for a pension which has seen the industry total pension funds under guaranteed arrangement grow from Ksh. 163 billion to 183.7 billion a growth rate of 12.7% despite the heavy withdrawals during the same period which was as a result of mergers & acquisition and closure of big stores like Nakumatt in 2018. It is projected that pension under this class will grow to 300 billion shillings by 2020...

August 21, 2019
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