May 2017

09May

Survey finds national pension provisions inadequate in Asia

The provisions of national retirement systems in Asia are inadequate, opening up opportunities for private pension providers to fill the gap, according to findings from a new survey. US consulting firm Milliman polled over 100 insurance companies and financial institutions in eight countries in Asia Pacific – Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand – in order to analyse the retirement income market in the region. It found that 14% of Australian respondents and 34% of non-Australian respondents...

May 9, 2017
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09May

Americans Fail Retirement Planning Literacy Quiz, Low Literacy Linked to Poor Planning

Americans nearing and in retirement don’t know enough about retirement income planning according to a new survey by The American College of Financial services, as roughly 75% of survey respondents failed the 38-question retirement planning quiz. (The quiz can be taken here.) The research surveyed a total of 1,244 Americans between February 16, 2017 and March 1, 2017. The literacy rate survey had a sampling error at the 95% confidence level of +/- 2.8%. According to David Littell, the...

May 9, 2017
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08May

US: What does longevity have to do with Social Security?

According to the 2015 Social Security report, less than 7 percent of people with enough quarters to draw their Social Security benefit died prior to receiving. There are three other groups of individuals that will not receive benefits – infrequent workers who do not have sufficient earnings to qualify for benefits, non-covered workers such as state and local government employees who did not pay into the program and immigrants who arrive in the United States at 50 or older...

May 8, 2017
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08May

Canada. Care of aging parents costs Canadians an estimated $33B annually

Caring for aging parents costs Canadians an estimated $33 billion a year in out-of-pocket expenses and time taken from work, and that figure is expected to grow, according to a report released Monday by economists at CIBC. "An aging population combined with longer lifespans and strained social services has in recent years seen more and more Canadians taking on the role of caregiver for their aging parents," CIBC deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal and senior economist Royce Mendes said in...

May 8, 2017
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08May

Taiwan’s BLF seeks new custodian for pension insurance fund

Taiwan’s Bureau of Labor Funds (BLF), the supervisory body of the island state’s labour pension funds, is looking for a new custodian for the National Pension Insurance Fund (NPIF)’s foreign investments, suggesting the agency isn’t renewing its contract with US financial services company BNY Mellon The NPIF, the fundamental social protection scheme in Taiwan, has lagged other BLF pension funds in its foreign investments because of its relatively small asset size. The BLF has been increasing the NPIF’s overseas exposure...

May 8, 2017
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05May

Mexican Antitrust Regulators Fines Pension Fund Managers

Mexico’s antitrust commission said Thursday it fined four pension fund management firms and 11 individuals a combined 1.1 billion pesos ($58 million) for making agreements to limit transfers of retirement accounts from one manager to another, restricting competition in the market. The Federal Competition Commission said that between November 2012 and June 2014, six bilateral agreements were signed among pension fund... Full Content: Wall Street Journal Remember to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter for more news or subscribe to our service...

May 5, 2017
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05May

US unique approach to aging, compared to Japan’s and Europe’s

When it comes to getting older, many Americans are on their own. A majority of people in Japan (55%), Italy (78%) and Brazil (82%) all believe their government is responsible for financing the aging population, according to the study by The Economist and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit, private foundation based in Menlo Park, Calif. The one exception? The U.S. Only 42% of American respondents felt the same. “These views are largely divided by party identification, as...

May 5, 2017
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05May

Slovakia. Public finances long-term sustainability helped by Pension Reform

Slovakia’s public finances are heading towards long-term sustainability, RRZ President Ivan Šramko announced on May 3 when presenting its Report on Long-term Sustainability of Public Finance for 2016. Yet the government should not ease its targets and its consideration for potential risks. These include the ageing population and growing expenditures in the health-care sector, reads the RRZ report, as cited by the TASR newswire. The long-term sustainability of public finances in Slovakia posted a year-on-year improvement last year. “The state of...

May 5, 2017
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05May

UK pension deficits rise to £145bn; liabilities at record high

Mercer’s Pensions Risk Survey data shows that the accounting deficit of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes for the UK’s 350 largest listed companies rose from £133bn at the end of March to £145bn on April 28th. Deficits were volatile over the month ranging from £132bn to £155bn. After the announcement of the UK election and the first round of the French election results there was a slight improvement by £4bn and £7bn, respectively, but deficits finished the month £12bn...

May 5, 2017
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05May

Principal eyes Taiwan pension business

US asset manager Principal Global Investors (Principal) sees business opportunities in Taiwan’s pension system, where the scope of investment allocations is limited. “Taiwan has pretty good pension coverage, but it needs to think about how to optimise its investment mix,” Jim McCaughan, chief executive officer of Principal, tells Asia Asset Management in an interview. “This provides some opportunities to us as we can provide international solutions that the pension system needs.” He notes that the Bureau of Labor Funds (BLF) and...

May 5, 2017
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