June 2017

01Jun

Pour money into pensions or risk a poor old age, IMF tells millennials

Traditional state pensions are unlikely to exist in their current form in the decades ahead, so young workers need to seize the initiative now and start saving for their old age, the International Monetary Fund has warned. Aging populations mean government resources - the taxes paid by workers - cannot stretch indefinitely to pay for substantial incomes for retirees into old age. As a result individuals will have to take more responsibility for their own income into old age, IMF economist...

June 1, 2017
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01Jun

Puerto Rico governor protects pensions, promises tax breaks

Puerto Rico's governor unveiled a budget Wednesday that prioritizes pension payments for tens of thousands of retired government workers who depend on a public pension system that is crumbling amid a deep economic crisis. The proposed $9.56 billion budget is more than a half million dollars larger than last year's, and Gov. Ricardo Rossello said that for the first time in recent history the budget would be truly balanced. "In the past, money was taken from areas, increasing budgeted spending and...

June 1, 2017
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May 2017

31May

Ireland. Only 35% of private sector workers have a pension, Donohoe says

Only 35 per cent of private sector workers have an occupational pension, Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe has told the Seanad. Mr Donohoe repeated his view that the value of pensions should be considered as part of public servants’ remuneration. However, he said something would also have to be done about the level of pension coverage and provision more broadly. The demographic structure of society was changing, with those in the old age cohort growing by 20,000 annually, he added. Mr Donohoe...

May 31, 2017
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31May

Nigeria. Not yet independence for Pension Reforms

Before the advent of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) in 2004, it was a common view seeing public officials shedding tears at public functions decrying the plights of pensioners. With the implementation of the Pension Reforms Act 2004 by the Federal Government more than a decade ago, the road may have not been completely smooth even though it is a radical departure from the past defined benefit system. The anxiety over the utilisation of pension assets since the arrival of the...

May 31, 2017
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31May

China’s pension fund to join the new Silk Road investment spree

China’s 2 trillion yuan (US$290 billion) national pension fund will hop onto the country’s new Silk Road bandwagon, joining other state-backed institutions to seek lucrative deals along the route. Wang Zhongmin, a vice-chairman of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), said the fund would take a go-slow and low-key approach, but he conceded that a bag of investment deals are in the pipeline. “We will do investments along the route,” he told the South China Morning Post . “We are resolute...

May 31, 2017
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30May

BT considering closing defined-benefit pensions scheme for existing staff

BT is considering closing its defined-benefit pension scheme, the latest former state-owned business to close – or move to close – so-called “gold-plated” retirement plans for existing employees. It comes as the telecoms group prepares to enter negotiations with pension trustees about the future funding of the scheme from next month. It follows a similar, but more advanced, proposal by the recently privatised Royal Mail Group, where plans to shut its defined-benefit pension scheme to existing workers next year has resulted...

May 30, 2017
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30May

Public pensions must recognize their duty to address climate risk

Federal progress to mitigate climate change has stalled. In March, President Trump signed an executive order to unravel Obama-era climate change policies, lifting restrictions on energy companies and emissions standards for power plants. The administration will soon decide whether to uphold campaign pledges to exit the Paris Climate Accord. However, amidst federal policy chaos, other institutional investors such as college and foundation endowments have the latitude to address material risks associated with climate change. And for public pension plans, addressing...

May 30, 2017
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30May

World heading for a pensions crisis, but no quick fix is in sight

Do you know what age you are planning on retiring at? Have you saved up enough money to retire? While these questions may appear simple, the answers are not. A new report from the Word Economic Forum, 'We'll live to 100 - How can we afford it?', takes a more in-depth look at the global pension crisis being faced by governments, and here are five of its key findings. 1. We are living much longer than pension systems were designed to support. Life...

May 30, 2017
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29May

US. Who killed retirement security? If you look closely, it wasn’t the 401(k)

“America’s retirement savings system has failed,” famed financial planning author Jane Bryant Quinn has said — and she isn’t short of company. Media articles regularly recount the ways in which Americans, burdened with the responsibility of saving for retirement through 401(k)s, fail to put enough aside for old age. In response, 84 percent of House Democrats have co-sponsored legislation to expand Social Security benefits, while states are hoping to establish their own retirement plans for private sector workers. But here’s the...

May 29, 2017
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29May

Jamaica’s labour minister urges population to get a retirement plan

By virtue of their longevity, centenarians Violet Mosse Brown, 117, and Hubert Williams, 104, have ostensibly highlighted the importance for working Jamaicans to acquire retirement plans, Minister of Labour and Social Security Shahine Robinson has pointed out.“To me, Auntie Vie (Mosse Brown) is a living testimony of the importance of the need to plan for retirement right from the start. And I am sure that Mr Williams can also tell you how important it is to plan,” Robinson...

May 29, 2017
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