November 2017

07Nov

Canada. NDP MP proposes changes to insolvency laws to improve pension protections

An Ontario backbench member of Parliament tabled a bill Monday to amend Canada's insolvency laws so they offer more protections to pension plans, post-retirement benefits and severance when a company is in deep financial trouble. The treatment of pensions during court-supervised restructurings has been a long-simmering issue but has attracted new attention since Sears Canada sought protection under the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act in July. In addition to ending post-retirement health benefits and severance payments immediately, Sears Canada's collapse meant future...

November 7, 2017
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06Nov

China’s pensioners to get customised mutual-fund products for stock investment

China’s pensioners will have a new channel to invest in the nation’s US$7.7 trillion stock market, as the securities regulator outlines requirements for asset allocations and holding periods for a new type of mutual fund serving retirees. Such funds should adopt a strategy of “stable asset allocations” and pursue a “long-term increase in asset values”, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said in a guideline published on its website, inviting public feedback. The new, customised funds can invest in fund-of-funds...

November 6, 2017
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06Nov

Namibia. Pension funds trustees challenged to enhance skills

Finance minister Calle Schlettwein on Friday said he understands that the skills and knowledge levels of trustees of retirement funds are inadequate. He said this in a statement read on his behalf by his executive assistant, Esau Mbako, at the launch of a book titled: “The manual on Namibian retirement funds and social security” by Manfred Zamuee. Schlettwein said the shortage of skills and knowledge of trustees of retirement funds needs intervention to empower them to understand their duties and...

November 6, 2017
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06Nov

IoM pension firm launches cryptocurrency services

Isle of Man-based corporate and pension service provider Optimus is to offer crypto-currency, block chain and Initial Coin Offering (ICO) services. Kerry Jones, senior manager responsible for leading Optimus’ fintech operations said the move was “not a wholesale change of direction but a logical extension of what we’ve been doing for years”. Optimus, which also has offices in Malta, said the IoM was the “fintech centre of choice” for digital currencies, ICOs and development of blockchain applications. Read more @International Adviser

November 6, 2017
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03Nov

Yield-Starved U.K. Pension Funds Jump on Private Debt Bandwagon

A newly created credit fund carved out jointly by two U.K. local government pension authorities plans to earmark almost half of its assets for investments in direct lending. The Local Pensions Partnership, formed by pooling the funds of local government retirement funds in London and Lancashire County, will plow approximately 45 percent of its 1.3 billion pound ($1.7 billion) capital into direct lending, according to a person familiar with the matter, who is not authorized to speak publicly and asked...

November 3, 2017
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03Nov

British Insurer Legal & General to Launch Japan Operation-CEO

British’s third-largest insurer, Legal & General (LGEN.L), is launching an operation in Japan to offer company pension scheme insurance and investment management, Chief Executive Nigel Wilson said on Thursday. The move by L&G comes as European peers such as Allianz (ALVG.DE) and Aviva (AV.L) have scaled back from other Asian markets such as Taiwan. The $21 billion (16.09 billion pounds) company, which manages 1 trillion pounds in assets in its fund arm, has sold a number of its European businesses in...

November 3, 2017
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03Nov

OECD: Australian retirement most exposed to share risk but returns not stellar

Australian superannuation funds have a much higher exposure to volatile share markets than almost any comparable country without earning higher returns, according to new figures. The OECD’s annual Pension Markets in Focus report has found that Australia’s pension (superannuation) system had 51 per cent of its assets in shares in June 2016, more than twice the weighting of Canada, with 23 per cent. The US had 31 per cent, the UK 14 per cent and Denmark 22 per cent. Conversely, Australian pension...

November 3, 2017
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03Nov

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Sells 364,200 Shares of Bank of Nova Scotia (The) (BNS)

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board cut its position in shares of Bank of Nova Scotia (The) (NYSE:BNS) (TSE:BNS) by 15.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,948,274 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 364,200 shares during the quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owned approximately 0.16% of Bank of Nova Scotia (The) worth $124,936,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Several other institutional investors...

November 3, 2017
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02Nov

A Nobel Prize-Winning Theory Is Enriching a $7.5 Billion Manager

Human beings tend to have biases. Knowing how to read those can make you very rich. During a recent interview in Oslo, Stacey Nutt, the chief executive officer of asset management firm ClariVest Asset Management LLC talked about the way behavioral economics is helping his portfolio managers beat the market. Nutt says the trick is to go for “under-appreciated fundamental trends.” “Fundamental movement but not a lot of excitement. That’s an interesting combination for us,” he said in the Norwegian capital...

November 2, 2017
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02Nov

Here’s How The Gender Gap Applies To Retirement

In its 2016 study “Shortchanged in Retirement,” The National Institute on Retirement Security explored financial hardships facing employed women, women approaching retirement and retired women. Co-authored by Manager of Research Jennifer Brown, the study identified that women are much more likely to face poverty in retirement than their male counterparts. The analysis attributes the gender disparity to what it calls the dysfunctional “three-legged stool” of middle class retirement: social security, a pension and personal retirement savings. “After decades of restructuring...

November 2, 2017
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