November 2017

03Nov

OECD: Australian retirement most exposed to share risk but returns not stellar

Australian superannuation funds have a much higher exposure to volatile share markets than almost any comparable country without earning higher returns, according to new figures. The OECD’s annual Pension Markets in Focus report has found that Australia’s pension (superannuation) system had 51 per cent of its assets in shares in June 2016, more than twice the weighting of Canada, with 23 per cent. The US had 31 per cent, the UK 14 per cent and Denmark 22 per cent. Conversely, Australian pension...

November 3, 2017
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03Nov

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Sells 364,200 Shares of Bank of Nova Scotia (The) (BNS)

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board cut its position in shares of Bank of Nova Scotia (The) (NYSE:BNS) (TSE:BNS) by 15.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,948,274 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 364,200 shares during the quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owned approximately 0.16% of Bank of Nova Scotia (The) worth $124,936,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Several other institutional investors...

November 3, 2017
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02Nov

A Nobel Prize-Winning Theory Is Enriching a $7.5 Billion Manager

Human beings tend to have biases. Knowing how to read those can make you very rich. During a recent interview in Oslo, Stacey Nutt, the chief executive officer of asset management firm ClariVest Asset Management LLC talked about the way behavioral economics is helping his portfolio managers beat the market. Nutt says the trick is to go for “under-appreciated fundamental trends.” “Fundamental movement but not a lot of excitement. That’s an interesting combination for us,” he said in the Norwegian capital...

November 2, 2017
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02Nov

Here’s How The Gender Gap Applies To Retirement

In its 2016 study “Shortchanged in Retirement,” The National Institute on Retirement Security explored financial hardships facing employed women, women approaching retirement and retired women. Co-authored by Manager of Research Jennifer Brown, the study identified that women are much more likely to face poverty in retirement than their male counterparts. The analysis attributes the gender disparity to what it calls the dysfunctional “three-legged stool” of middle class retirement: social security, a pension and personal retirement savings. “After decades of restructuring...

November 2, 2017
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02Nov

Ørsted to sell 50% of Walney Extension to Danish pension funds

Danish utility Ørsted A/S (CPH:ORSTED), formerly Dong Energy A/S, announced today it has inked a deal to sell a 50% stake in the 659-MW Walney Extension offshore wind project to pension funds PKA and PFA. Each of the two Danish pension funds will acquire a 25% stake in the project and, together, they are committing to fund 50% of the payments under the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the entire wind park, including the transmission assets. The total...

November 2, 2017
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02Nov

UK. Cost of living pressures affect people on welfare more than anyone

The release of the latest cost of living indexes shows that for all types of households the cost of living continues to grow well below long-term averages. But in September the impact of electricity price rises most affected aged pensioner and other government beneficiary households. For these households, who have mostly missed out on the benefits of falling interest rates, it means that they remain the most affected by cost of living pressures. Unlike the consumer price index, which provides...

November 2, 2017
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02Nov

East Africa: Regional Pension Managers Meet in Kigali

Managing social security institutions require good leadership skills coupled with integrity and ethical values to deliver better services and properly manage people's pension savings. The observation was made on Monday during the opening of a workshop that brought together officials from social security institutions from eight countries forming Eastern and Central Africa Social Security Association (ECASSA). Experts observed that, generally, the issues affecting pension schemes are homogeneous across countries while institutions may have own challenges where integrity and ethics are not...

November 2, 2017
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02Nov

World’s Biggest Pension Fund Adds $39 Billion as Stocks Rise

The world’s biggest pension fund posted its fifth-straight quarterly gain, the longest run in more than two years, as global stocks advanced to new highs and weakness in the yen helped boost the value of overseas investments.  Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund returned 3 percent, or 4.5 trillion yen ($39 billion), in the three months ended Sept. 30, increasing assets to a record 156.8 trillion yen, it said in Tokyo on Thursday. Domestic equities added 1.8 trillion yen as the...

November 2, 2017
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01Nov

South Africa’s State Pension Fund Preparing for National Downgrade

South Africa’s main government workers’ pension fund is seeking permission to invest more cash in international assets to protect against the impact of a possible downgrade of the country’s local-currency debt to junk status. The Government Employees Pension Fund is in talks with Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba about easing its investment criteria to include more foreign bonds and equities, Abel Sithole, principal executive officer, told reporters in Johannesburg on Tuesday. The GEPF currently has 1 percent of its 1.7 trillion...

November 1, 2017
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October 2017

31Oct

New Zealand. Thousands overpaid pensions, nine prosecutions

In the 12 months to June 2017, 52,525 people receiving either New Zealand superannuation or a veteran's pension were found to have been overpaid, Ministry of Social Development (MSD) figures released to RNZ show. That compares to 35,101 cases of overpayment discovered in 2013. The ministry did not say how much in total was overpaid each year but said the average in 2017 was $625, while the single largest overpaid amount was $207,139. In August New Zealand First leader Winston Peters...

October 31, 2017
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