May 2019

02May

Tunisia raises minimum wages, pensions to tackle discontent

Tunisia raised the minimum wage for industrial and farm workers as well as pensions for hundreds of thousands of private-sector retirees by 6.5 percent on Wednesday in a move to defuse discontent over economic hardships. Thousands protested on Monday in the central city of Sidi Bouzid against marginalisation and deteriorating economic conditions. Hundreds of disgruntled young people also rallied in the northern city of Kef on Tuesday, demanding jobs. A government statement said Prime Minister Youssef Chahed had approved...

May 2, 2019
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02May

South Africa. Ramaphosa and ANC are coming for your pensions, Maimane claims

The DA leader alleges the ruling party has stolen an estimated R1.2 trillion through corruption. Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane spoke at a Worker’s Day rally the party held in Cape Town on Wednesday, warning an audience of supporters that Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC were allegedly “coming for” the pensions of South Africans. The DA leader was referring to the idea of prescribed investments for pension funds, which has been hinted at by the ANC in its...

May 2, 2019
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02May

France. Macron still faces a battle to fund his ageing nation

The problem of an ageing population and how to fund pensions and dependency care that has bedevilled previous governments has now landed in President Macron’s lap. It has been estimated that these costs will double in the next 20 years as people live longer and need more support. France has fewer people in work and more and more over-60s – especially over-75-year-olds – needing care. Costs are rising too, as longer lives do not necessarily mean extended healthy lives....

May 2, 2019
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01May

New type of retirement plans cut risk of outliving your money — but there’s a catch

Perhaps the biggest fear of people saving for retirement is outliving their money. But paradoxically, that fear can create a second problem: saving too much. Studies have found some people are so worried about running out of money that their balances grow even after retirement. Thus the challenging retirement conundrum: Save too little and risk the poorhouse; save too much and you could die before you have the chance to enjoy the golden years you spent an entire career saving toward. People struggling...

May 1, 2019
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01May

South Africa’s insurtech startup Nobuntu raises funding from Crossfin

South African fintech startup Nobuntu, which builds innovative insurance products for lower-income segments, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from fintech holding company Crossfin to help it scale. Nobuntu, which previously raised funding from DFS Lab and was recently selected to take part in the UK-based Go Global Africa programme, currently offers two products – affordable funeral cover, and a pension savings product named The People’s Fund. It has now secured an undisclosed amount of funding from fintech holding company Crossfin, whose portfolio...

May 1, 2019
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01May

Australia. Self-funded retirees could earn less than age pension

Labor’s policy to end cash refunds for franking credits is a contentious topic – and for good reason. It's a policy that could reduce some retirees’ incomes by up to a third. Consider retirees Alan and Bev, both in their 80s. They have a modest home worth $400,000, a 10-year-old car, a caravan and a small amount of cash that they hold for emergencies. They have built up a nest egg of about $800,000 in a share portfolio they hold...

May 1, 2019
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01May

Danish pension fund ATP posts record investment return

Denmark’s largest pension fund, ATP, reported the best quarterly return ever on its investment portfolio on Tuesday, but its chief executive cautioned that the end to a decade-long market upturn was near. ATP, Europe’s fourth-largest pension fund with around $120 billion of assets under management, achieved a record investment return of 20 billion Danish crowns ($3 billion) before costs and taxes in the first quarter, equivalent to a rate of return of 21.7 percent. The previous five years the fund has...

May 1, 2019
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01May

Pensions in Germany to rise by more than 3 pct after annual adjustment

The German federal cabinet approved a decree by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs on Tuesday that will see pensions in Germany rise noticeably. The cabinet approval of the annual pension adjustment, which is based on wage developments, will increase pensions in western Germany by 3.18 percent as of July 1, and by as much as 3.91 percent in eastern Germany. German Labour and Social Affairs Minister Hubertus Heil commented that the rise was an "extraordinarily positive development in pensions". The...

May 1, 2019
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01May

Why the Future of Brazil’s Economy Rides on Pensions

Latin America’s largest economy, Brazil, is at a crossroads. Fixing its public finances could open the door to a virtuous cycle of expansion; failing that, it risks slipping deeper into junk-level credit ratings and sub-par growth. Much depends on the nation’s costly pension system, the target of the first sustained legislative push by President Jair Bolsonaro and his economic team. Mustering lawmaker support for pension reform failed as recently as 2017 under former President Michel Temer, and Bolsonaro’s effort...

May 1, 2019
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April 2019

30Apr

Malta’s tighter pension rules to affect thousands of UK savers

Malta is introducing tougher pension rules which stipulates that advisers must be regulated in the jurisdiction where their client is based, a move that will affect tens of thousands of British savers. The new rules, due to come into effect on 1 July 2019 according to the Malta Financial Services Authority (MSFA), will impact the way in which pension trustees administer both new scheme applications and existing members on a number of levels. deVere Group estimates that in the...

April 30, 2019
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