U.S. pensions are expected to shift more money into bonds and out of equities to rebalance their holdings at month-end in the wake of strong gains in the stock market in January, Wells Fargo strategists said on Monday. Retirement plans may need to add $16 billion in fixed income and to reduce up to $20 billion in equities for their month-end asset-allocation rebalancing, they wrote in a research note. Read More: Reuters
MetLife Inc said on Monday the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was looking into the insurer’s failure to pay some workers’ pensions. MetLife, in a statement, said the SEC’s enforcement staff has inquired about payments that the insurer failed to make for people who receive a type of annuity benefit from the company via its retirement business. Less than 5 percent of 600,000 people are affected, the company has said. The New York insurer estimated increasing total reserves by between $525...
A new research paper from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business discusses the rationality (or otherwise) of the return expectations of institutional investors, with especial reference to public pension funds. It finds that the returns that pension fund managers expect from their investments are extrapolated from the returns those investments have made in the past. That is a normal human tendency, to presuppose inertia, but it is not ideally rational. The report is co-authored by Aleksandar Andonov, of Erasmus University,...
Bosses at Carillion are set for a heated showdown with MPs after the Commons work and pensions committee accused the failed outsourcer of attempting to “wriggle out” of its pension obligations for the past decade. The committee released details of the way the company’s pension deficit and its cash problems were handled over several years. This week MPs will be questioning former Carillion executives and regulators as part of a joint inquiry into the company’s collapse with the business, energy...
That is according to figures released today by The Pensions Regulator (TPR), which show that the number of people in DC schemes has risen to 12.6 million. They also reveal that £5.4bn was put into these schemes in 2017, an increase of more than 21% compared to the previous year, with a total of £48bn now saved in DC pensions. “The success of automatic enrolment has put DC schemes at the heart of pension saving in the UK,” TPR acting executive...
Over the next 20 years the number of older persons in the Caribbean will double. This ageing of the population has important implications for public policy in areas such as pensions, health, and social care services. Consequently, there is an urgent need to strengthen social protection against the risks associated with ageing, for example loss of income, ill health, disability, loss of independence, isolation and abuse. At the same time, with older persons making up an increasing proportion of the...
South Africa’s civil servants union has teamed up with the government pension fund to pursue Steinhoff (SNHJ.J) (SNHG.DE) for around $1.4 billion of pensioners’ money lost as a result of an accounting scandal at the troubled retailer. Steinhoff, which owns more than 40 brands including Poundland in Britain, admitted “accounting irregularities” last month, sparking an 85 percent share price slide that wiped more than $10 billion off its market capitalization. This has left investors such as the Public Investment Corporation (PIC),...
Government moves to fix the pensions anomaly now risk discriminating against men hit by the same problem, the Dáil has been told. The Government was also under pressure over the decision to re-open Stepaside Garda Station in Dublin. There were claims that it was a “political trophy” for local Independent Alliance TD and Transport Minister, Shane Ross. Fianna Fáil welcomed Government efforts to fix the pensions problem which since 2012 has left some pensioners with €40 per week less. Read More: Independent
If you're a 65-year-old woman, on average you're expected to live until you're 89. But the variation is high – on average one in 10 women aged 65 will live past 100 years and one in 10 won't make it to 77. If you're in the group that will live past 100 years, you need to find an additional $39,000 a year for more than a decade to fund yourself (based on the AFSA comfortable standard for singles aged around...
Gold is becoming more mainstream. Since 2001, investment demand for gold worldwide has grown 18% per year, on average. This has been driven in part by the advent of new ways to access the market, such as physical gold-backed exchange-traded funds (ETFs), but also by the expansion of the middle class in Asia, and a renewed focus on effective risk management following the 2008–2009 financial crisis in the US and Europe. Today, gold is more relevant than ever for institutional investors....
