March 2021
02Mar

US. Pension Relief Plan in COVID-19 Stimulus Bill That Passes House

On Saturday, a measure to give troubled multiemployer pension plans assistance from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) passed the House of Representatives, as part of a larger $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package from President Joe Biden. Read also US. Stimulus Bill Freezes Retirement Plan Contribution Limits The federal stimulus package, which includes $1,400 checks for many Americans and increased funding for vaccines, also holds the Emergency Pension Plan Relief Act of 2021 (EPPRA), an update to the Butch Lewis Act....

March 2, 2021
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01Mar

US. Prelude to a State Pension Bailout

By Andrew G. Biggs After decades of mismanagement, state and local government pensions face unfunded liabilities topping $4.2 trillion. When a major public plan finally runs dry, you can bet Congress will bail it out no matter the crippling cost. Congressional Democrats’ Covid-relief package includes a multibillion-dollar bailout for union-affiliated private-sector multiemployer pensions. If politicians will bail out truckers’ and coal miners’ pensions, why would they turn away teachers and firefighters? Multiemployer pensions are jointly run by labor unions and employers,...

March 1, 2021
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February 2021
18Feb

Ten degrees of sustainability

By Tanya Broadfield In November, when COP26 takes place in Glasgow, the eyes of the world will be looking at what progress the UK has made towards delivering sustainability targets to support net zero and the tackling of climate change. Savills has identified 10 drivers of change we can expect to hear more about this year. 1. TCFD and climate transparency A raft of sustainability disclosure requirements is coming and The Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) is leading the way. Since January,...

February 18, 2021
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January 2021

29Jan

Coronavirus throwing retirement systems into a deepening hole

By Douglas Appell, Paulina Pielichata Emerging markets policymakers' uphill battle to ensure a comfortable retirement for their fast-aging populations became considerably more daunting last year as the coronavirus ripped through the global economy. Read also Australia’s pension assets fall for first time since 2009- regulator Creative approaches to asset allocation and structural changes to keep retirement systems from morphing into rainy day funds are topics policymakers could find themselves grappling with as they look to move forward again after a year...

January 29, 2021
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18Jan

US. Reforming public pensions

By Nadeem Jeddy Government employees need lifelong incomes to stay independent and promote public interest. Private employees serve no higher cause. Replacing public pensions with traditional defined contribution (DC) schemes like Voluntary Pension System (VPS) and provident funds (PFs) will destroy the security of lifelong incomes. Government employees will be forced to take greater interest in personal finance. New forms of malfeasance will emerge that will be hard to catch and difficult to reverse. A better alternative would be to offer...

January 18, 2021
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18Jan

Australia. Why we should stick with the 12pc super guarantee rate

By Karen Maley If Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was hoping that the eagerly awaited Callaghan retirement income review might help him resolve the fiendishly difficult political problem of what to do with the superannuation guarantee levy, he'll be deeply disappointed. The Morrison government is facing intense pressure from a group of hardline backbenchers to scrap the long-legislated increase in employers' compulsory contribution to their workers' super from 9.5 per cent of wages to 12 per cent by 2025. Read more @AFR

January 18, 2021
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11Jan

Infrastructure investing is no pension fund free ride (In response to “pension funds need a radical rethink”)

By Bernard H. Casey Robin Harding argues that “pension funds need a radical rethink” (Opinion, January 6). But remember investing in infrastructure is nothing new for pension funds. I recall being at an event at the London School of Economics in September 2011 where Nick Clegg, then the deputy prime minister, proposed this as a way to get the economy moving without the need for additional public expenditure. I raised the example of Australian and Canadian funds with him —...

January 11, 2021
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11Jan

Australia. Digital identity the next frontier for FinTech innovation

Special Report: The growing prevalence of digital identities will have far-reaching consequences for the way we interact with our traditional banking and financial services institutions in shaping the contours of customer engagement. Read also New Zealand. Private superannuation savings schemes ‘underperforming’ The renewed investment by the federal government in digital identification presents a telling blueprint for the future of public-facing interactions – one which could completely transform legacy systems and infrastructure, particularly when applied to Australia’s financial services sector. Read...

January 11, 2021
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08Jan

How Measuring Replacement Income Can Aid Assessment of Public Pension Plans

Pew evaluates a key predictor of career workers’ standard of living in retirement. The Pew Charitable Trusts uses three retirement security metrics to assist policymakers in evaluating how well their plans are expected to prepare public workers for retirement. This fact sheet focuses on the replacement income ratio, a commonly cited indicator that illustrates whether a worker might expect to maintain his or her standard of living in retirement.1 This ratio—also referred to as the replacement rate—is the percentage of a worker’s...

January 8, 2021
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07Jan

UK. Regulators and police say Covid lockdowns have driven up online pension scams and demand regulation of Google, Facebook and others

As people spend longer shopping online, scammers pounce through Google and Facebook.Online pension scams run through social media sites are surging as people are stuck at home in lockdown, regulators and police warned MPs today. Scammers have become increasingly skilled at advertising fake pension investments through Google, Facebook and other digital means, and the increased use of the internet by the public to buy shopping and services has created a fertile environment for the scammers, officials from the Financial Conduct...

January 7, 2021
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