August 2017

03Aug

Singapore, Canadian pension funds to invest $1 bln in US talent firm

US talent management agency WME-IMG, which counts Japan's SoftBank Group among its investors, said it would receive a $1 billion investment from Canada's largest pension fund manager and Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), in a separate statement, said it would invest about $400 million for an 8 percent stake in WME-IMG, which owns brands like Ultimate Fighting Championship and the Miss Universe Organization. "This investment in a unique market leading platform in entertainment, sports and...

August 3, 2017
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03Aug

UK. Scotland facing ageing population timebomb

Scotland is facing a demographic time bomb in the coming decades with a sharp rise in the older population, prompting fears over how hard-pressed services will cope. The number of pensioners will soar by 28 per cent in just 25 years, according to official figures from the Registers of Scotland released yesterday. The figure has led to calls for the “swift action” from the Scottish Government to deal with the expected spike in demand at hospitals and social care departments. And there...

August 3, 2017
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03Aug

5% Is the New 8% for Pension Funds

For years, many pension funds assumed they would earn an average 8 percent annually from their investments. It was a reasonable expectation for a while. But times have changed. Now, the question isn't whether return expectations should be lower, but by how much. The average target has fallen toward 7.5 percent, but that's still probably difficult to meet without taking excessive risk. Howard Marks, the co-founder and co-chairman of asset manager Oaktree Capital Group, threw out a number this week that was...

August 3, 2017
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03Aug

New York City Pensions Return 12.95 Percent in Fiscal 2017: Preliminary Report

New York City's public pension system returned 12.95 percent on its investments in fiscal 2017, according to preliminary results from City Comptroller Scott Stringer on Wednesday, after two years of far more dismal results. Those returns, well above the funds' target return rate of 7.0 percent, should provide some relief for the underfunded retirement system. The results also mirror the investment performance of the nation's two largest public pension plans, both in California. Stringer cautioned that the results had not yet been...

August 3, 2017
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03Aug

UK. A Waspi woman who worked for the NHS explains how the rise in the state pension age affects her

Rosemary Dickson, 60, is a retired heart and lung machine operator from Glasgow. She receives an occupational pension, but not a state pension. She would have started receiving her pension this week if not for the age increase. Instead she will be able to access it in 2023, when she is 66. Rosemary, who is a member of Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) in Glasgow, says she will lose out on £500 every month between now and 2023. She is trying to find...

August 3, 2017
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02Aug

US. State, local pension plan funding dropped in 2016

As if there’s not enough to worry about in the retirement crisis, when people have so little saved, those who have pensions from states and local governments are likely not reassured about the performance of aggregate funding levels for those plans in 2016. A brief from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College finds that aggregate funding for state and local pension plans fell during fiscal year 2016, thanks to continued steady growth of liabilities even while poor stock...

August 2, 2017
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02Aug

UK. Is the pensions industry ready for cyber-attacks and GDPR

Stuart Price, Partner and Actuary at pensions specialist Quantum Advisory in Bristol, looks into the increasingly important role of cyber security in the pensions industry Pension schemes, the vast sums of money in them, and the personal information they hold such as bank details and national insurance numbers, mean they are a key target for organised cybercrime units. Should a cyber-attack take place, which is looking ever more likely due to advances in technology, the consequences, which may go unnoticed...

August 2, 2017
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02Aug

China is stepping up reform of private pension market

Themed Opportunities and Challenges of Pension Management: Reform and Globalisation, the event brought together a roster of market practitioners to gather their views on developments in the global pension industry and investment trends. The first keynote address at the event was delivered by Wang Zhongmin, vice chairman of the National Council for Social Security Fund (NSSF). Mr. Wang said the pension assets overseen by the NSSF are made up of two components – the fundamental pension fund and the supplementary Social...

August 2, 2017
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02Aug

UK. Government banks £5bn by delaying 1.1m women’s state pensions

The Government has saved more than £5bn as a result of raising the age at which women start receiving their state pension, a new report has found. The figure - which has been calculated by the authoritative think tank the Institue of Fiscal Studies - is the first to attempt to quantify the benefit to the Exchequer of making a cohort of women wait as long as six years for their state pension. It will fuel the anger of those women,...

August 2, 2017
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01Aug

UK. Coats restores dividend as it ties off pensions dispute

  Coats Group, the world’s largest manufacturer of thread yarn and zips, has shaken off a three-year dispute with the pensions regulator to reinstate its interim dividend amid rising profits. In the six months to the end of June, the company’s revenues rose 3.8pc to $740m (£564m), while pre-tax profits were up 25.9pc on the previous year at $75.8m. The performances from its clothing arm and the division that supplies industrial thread were particularly strong. Coats supplies threads, zips and trims to...

August 1, 2017
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