September 2025
25Sep

US. Why Corporate Pensions Are Acting Like Bond Traders

The corporate pension de-risking market has hit the brakes after a record-breaking run. More than $14 billion in pension risk transfers were executed YTD through Q3 2024—the highest level in over 16 years. Yet YTD Q2 2025, volume had dropped 64% year-over-year. What’s driving this sharp reversal? Increasingly, it appears that corporate plan sponsors are behaving like bond traders—actively timing their de-risking strategies around rate moves and market conditions. Pension liabilities are highly sensitive to long-term interest rates. When rates rise, the present value of...

September 25, 2025
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24Sep

US. House Oversight probes whether American retirees’ pension funds are being weaponized: ‘Progressive playbook’

The House Oversight Committee is setting its sights on insurance companies that may have discriminated against entities with right-wing views. The committee is also looking into whether retirees' pension accounts were being used to invest in progressive policies they may not necessarily agree with, Fox News Digital has learned. "The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating improper restrictions on access to capital and capital markets of individuals and entities based on political viewpoints or involvement in certain industries (such...

September 24, 2025
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24Sep

UK. Invisible workers face pension crisis

New research from PensionBee, a leader in the consumer retirement market, reveals a deepening divide in the UK’s pension system, with millions of self-employed, gig economy and lower-income workers being denied the same chance of a secure retirement as those in traditional employment. Of the most striking results of the survey of 1,000 UK adults working in the gig economy, was that only 16% of those earning under £15,000 report paying regularly into a personal pension, whilst less than...

September 24, 2025
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24Sep

Leveraging pension funds as an alternative source for climate funding in Ghana

Ghana can unlock a transformative source of climate finance by strategically channelling part of its growing pension fund assets into climate-aligned investments. With pension assets reaching GH¢86.23 billion as of 2024, the country has significant untapped potential to bridge climate financing gaps. Directed deployment of this capital into renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and resilient infrastructure, enabled under existing NPRA and SEC guidelines, offers a scalable pathway to accelerate progress toward national climate commitments, deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),...

September 24, 2025
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24Sep

Australia. Analysis reveals benefit of lifetime income products

nvestment-linked lifetime income products can enhance retirement outcomes and sustainable regular income for Australian retirees, according to new research from Accurium. The findings of the research are significant, given that a central issue in retirement planning is longevity risk, or the fear of outliving savings, and demonstrate how investment-linked lifetime income products can help by providing income guaranteed for life that can grow with investment performance. It also found that these products improved access to the age pension, with modelling showing...

September 24, 2025
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23Sep

US. Pension Risk Transfer drops in first half

For the second consecutive quarter, activity in the pension risk transfer (PRT) market declined, resulting in sales of $11.5 billion through 2Q, a 56% decrease year-over-year, according to LIMRA’s U.S. Group Annuity Risk Transfer Survey. While the industry is off to a slower start compared to the last few years, which was widely anticipated by most industry insiders, Nationwide’s head of PRT, Paula Cole expects marketplace activity to pick up in the second half of the year. Despite this...

September 23, 2025
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23Sep

Nigeria. Micro pension surges nine-fold as tech drives adoption

The Micro Pension Plan (MPP), otherwise known as the Personal Pension Plan (PPP), has grown nine-fold in four years, driven by technology and increased awareness. The plan grew from N168.63 million in 2021 to N1.46 billion in 2025, according to data from the National Pension Commission (PenCom), reflecting that Nigerians are taking steps to secure their future. This trend has also been seen in the voluntary contributions segment under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), where participation grew steadily from...

September 23, 2025
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23Sep

UK. PensionBee Urges Pensions Commission to Deliver Bold Reforms to Secure Better Retirements for Millions of UK Savers

Millions risk being condemned to retirement poverty unless the UK’s pensions system is overhauled, PensionBee has warned, as it calls on the Pensions Commission to deliver bold reforms to tackle deep-rooted structural inequalities. In a letter to the Commission, the leading online pension provider highlights how women, unpaid carers, the self-employed and lower-paid workers are being locked out of the progress achieved through Auto-Enrolment, while many others are being held back by a pensions market that is too complex and...

September 23, 2025
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23Sep

US. These Trump policies put your retirement at risk. Here’s how to plan for the worst.

Essential strategies to protect your retirement amid increasing uncertainty As the old saying goes: Plan for the worst and hope for the best. If ever you need an incentive to plan for the worst, consider reading about the ways in which the Trump administration's policies may be worsening Americans' retirement prospects and increasing uncertainty in the latest paper - "Projecting New Policy Proposals' Effects on Americans' Retirement Prospects" - written by Lauren Valastro, an assistant professor of law at Texas Tech...

September 23, 2025
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23Sep

How fiduciary duty is shaping pension fund attitudes towards climate risk

From an individual perspective, pensions are promises. Promises of dignity in old age, of rewards deferred, of stability earned over time. From a systemic perspective, however, pensions are systems engineers. Standing at the junction of what is and what will be – set the money aside now to live a good life in the future – pensions effectively enable economic systems to perpetuate themselves. Through investments, they silently design our future or, more often than not, prolong our past decisions. In...

September 23, 2025
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