February 2018

20Feb

UK. Britain’s pensions regulator ignored trustee requests on Carillion: lawmakers

Britain’s pensions regulator twice ignored requests from trustees of collapsed outsourcing firm Carillion (CLLN.L) to force the company to plug its pension deficit, lawmakers said on Tuesday. The Pensions Regulator has come under fire for taking insufficient steps to protect pension scheme members of troubled companies, following the collapse of department store chain BHS in 2016. Carillion collapsed on Jan. 15, with only 29 million pounds ($41 million) of cash left. It had pension liabilities of around 2.5 billion pounds, two...

February 20, 2018
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20Feb

UK. What Were the Outcomes of the Work and Pensions Committee Report?

“The outcome of the report comes as no real surprise. It concluded that the process for members to decide whether to move to the new British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS2) was hurried and the communication far too complex with not enough bespoke information. These factors contributed to many members transferring out of the scheme to a defined contribution arrangement, which was not in their best interest. “Nearly all members would be better off moving to the BSPS2, but as formal...

February 20, 2018
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20Feb

Ghana. Private pension funds hit GH¢9.7bn; expert wants funds used for prudent investments

Private pension funds have maintained their strong growth over the years, reaching a record high of GH¢9.7billion in 2017, from the previous year’s GH¢6.8billion. Data from the sector regulator, the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), show that 9.2 billion of the 9.7 billion was accrued from Assets Under Management (AUM) managed by licenced trustees, while some GH¢0.5billion came from the Temporary Pension Fund Account (TPFA). Last year’s figure, which is over 4.5 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), represents...

February 20, 2018
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19Feb

How To Save More For Retirement And Deal With Volatility

The past few weeks have given stock investors around the world a bitter taste of the volatility dragon that comes out of its cave every once and a while. It hasn't been pleasant. After years of steady returns, we seem to be in a new market phase. Interest rates are climbing. Stock prices are getting pummeled. And the U.S. will be pitching global investors on trillions of dollars in new debt. There are some easy ways to deal with volatility while...

February 19, 2018
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19Feb

The pensions gender gap

AS you may remember, we recently looked at a report from the pensions company Aegon which highlighted the pensions saving gap between men and women. It revealed that by age 50, women have on average saved half as much as men into their pension: just £56,000 compared to £112,000 for their male colleagues. Well, now there have been some studies done down south, that show this is not just an exclusively UK or Northern Ireland problem, it goes right across the...

February 19, 2018
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19Feb

US. Spending Bill Sets Path to Fix a Looming Pension Crisis

The sprawling agreement to boost government spending reached by Republicans and Democrats this month quietly included a step toward defusing what could be a financial time bomb for 1.5 million retirees and hundreds of companies in the industrial Midwest and the South. The deal creates a select congressional committee to craft what could effectively be a federal rescue of as many as 200 so-called “multiemployer” pension plans — in which employers and labor unions band together to provide retirement benefits...

February 19, 2018
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19Feb

Japan, short of workers, eyes hiking optional pension age beyond 70

Japan has okayed plans to let people choose to start drawing their state pensions beyond the age of 70 as it grapples with severe labour shortages, ballooning welfare costs and a shrivelling tax base stemming from its greying population. The government said on Friday it would look to cement the proposals through legal changes after April 2020, adding that it would look at raising in stages the mandatory retirement age for some 3.4 million civil servants to 65 from the...

February 19, 2018
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16Feb

Steel pensions scheme victim to ‘major mis-selling scandal’

In 2017 the Indian firm announced a restructuring of the £14bn fund to keep its UK loss-making operations afloat. But the government, Tata and regulators failed to protect 124,000 members from a "major mis-selling scandal", the Work and Pensions Select Committee said. The UK government has yet to issue its response to the "neglect" claim. Read More: BBC News

February 16, 2018
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16Feb

Investing for retirement: a long-term game many workers aren’t even playing

As a bullish 2017 stock market continued its steady rise to record breaking levels, President Trump and others took the opportunity to highlight these gains for retirement savers and their 401(k)s. But that record-breaking streak came to end in early February as the stock market finally tumbled, reminding us that what goes up usually comes down. The lesson from this: highlighting short-term gains to retirement portfolios can do more harm than good to long-term retirement savings and can weaken the...

February 16, 2018
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16Feb

US. State Pensions Need Reforms, Not Fewer Options

Across the country, state and local pension systems have not amassed enough assets (stocks, bonds, and other financial investments) to cover the retirement benefits promised to current and retired state and local employees. This gap is referred to as the pension funds’ “unfunded liabilities”. According to the Pew Charitable Trusts, the unfunded liabilities of state-administered pension systems across the country were $1.1 trillion in 2015 – a 17 percent increase from 2014! According to the American Legislative Exchange Council, the...

February 16, 2018
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