January 2018

04Jan

Canadian pensions fared well in 2017 on stock markets’ strength: Mercer

Defined-benefit pension plans in Canada generally ended 2017 in better financial condition than they've experienced for most of the past decade, according to figures released Wednesday by Mercer. The international pension consulting firm's Canadian index of pension health – based on a hypothetical, representative fund – stood at 106 per cent on Dec. 29, up from 102 per cent at the beginning of the year and a dismal 70 per cent after the 2008-09 financial crisis. "Equity markets had crashed and...

January 4, 2018
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04Jan

US. Tax Reform Results in Only Minor Changes for Retirement Plans

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made significant changes to the tax code and will have a significant impact on businesses and individual taxpayers. However, although initial proposals included potentially significant changes to employer-sponsored retirement plans, the impact of the final bill on employer sponsored retirement plans will be relatively minor. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the Act), which was signed into law on December 22, 2017, represents the most sweeping overhaul of the tax code in decades and...

January 4, 2018
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03Jan

Philippines moving toward aging population: POPCOM

The number of people aged 60 and above in the Philippines is expected to grow this year, latest projections from the Commission on Population (POPCOM) show. The number of elderly Filipinos or those over 60 years old is projected to increase by 0.23 percent over 2017 and will most likely be over 8 million Filipino senior citizens by the end of the year, POPCOM said. This will constitute 8.2 percent of the country's total population. Of this figure, 5 million will...

January 3, 2018
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03Jan

Should Pension Funds Invest in Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is largely unregulated, “very volatile,” difficult to hold — and should be included in institutional investors’ portfolios, according to a research paper by a hedge fund consultant and pension fund investor. The case for investing in Bitcoin comes from Jim Kyung-Soo Liew, a finance professor at Johns Hopkins’ Carey Business School and chief executive officer of SoKat Consulting, and Levar Hewlett, a quantitative risk management associate at the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System. In a paper posted last month on research...

January 3, 2018
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02Jan

Insurers adapting to ageing Hong Kong and China with policies that cover longer lives

Ageing populations in Hong Kong and mainland China are leading the insurance industry to extend the age range of life products and to include cover for more diseases and for mental illness, according to a senior executive at reinsurer Swiss Re. Robert Burr, the managing director and head of life and health reinsurance client markets in Asia, told the South China Morning Post in an interview that statistics showed 25 per cent of people born today would be able to live to...

January 2, 2018
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02Jan

Charity warns Ireland’s ageing population will ’impact every part of Irish life’

The number of older people in Ireland will go from half a million to a million and a half over the next five years. Charity for older people ’ALONE’, is warning that this will increase pressure on services like healthcare, transport and housing. CEO of ALONE, Sean Moynihan says they plan to dramatically increase their staff to help support our ageing population. He said: "It’ a big task and I think we’re an ageing population. "People need to realise this is going...

January 2, 2018
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01Jan

India. New fund managers and more incremental reform in pensions

The year 2017 saw some important developments in the pension sector, which is dominated in India by the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) and the National Pension System (NPS). As any development in the sector impacts the savings of millions of individuals, even a minor change goes through many deliberations, and could take time. The developments in withdrawal rules, taxability and ease of operation, in 2017, too were incremental in nature. Similarly, no single big bang change is expected in 2018....

January 1, 2018
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01Jan

Japan. ESG investing for innovation

By Peter David Pedersen I imagine most people know about the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals and, possibly, ESG investment. From working as a strategic advisor on corporate sustainability in Japan since the mid-1990s, I feel these two concepts represent major drivers of innovation for businesses across the world. ESG investment is a global movement that picked up speed around 2006, when the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) were launched at the New York Stock Exchange with more than 100 institutional investors as...

January 1, 2018
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December 2017

29Dec

Chile pension watchdog approves risk-based supervision model

Chile's pension watchdog SP has approved via a resolution changes to its risk-based supervision framework for private pension fund managers (AFPs) and unemployment insurance administrator AFC. The changes had been put out to public consultation in November. Comments from seven entities were received, according to SP. Coming into force on May 1 next year, the changes follow the enactment of a new law last year which grants SP specific powers regarding risk analysis and supervision of risk management. Under the legislation, SP is authorized...

December 29, 2017
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29Dec

UK to sink to the bottom of OECD wage growth index in 2018

Britain is set to have the worst wage growth of any wealthy nation next year, ranking behind Italy, Greece and Hungary, according to analysis by the TUC. The UK is forecast to come bottom from 32 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development wealthy nations for wage performance in 2018, according to the study of OECD figures by the unions’ umbrella group. British workers are expected to see their earnings decrease by 0.7% in 2018 when taking account of inflation, which has...

December 29, 2017
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