March 2025
05Mar

‘Trump can’t tell people where to invest their money’

One of Donald Trump’s first acts on returning to the White House was to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement, and he has long railed against environmental, social and governance investment and “woke capitalism”, having rolled back more than 100 environmental rules and policies in his first term. So there is an understandable fear that Trump’s stance will slow momentum towards meeting net-zero targets and reduce sustainable investment around the world. Multiple financial institutions have withdrawn from net-zero alliances set...

March 5, 2025
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05Mar

Pooled pension innovations offer new structures for retirement income

This article is part of a new Globe Advisor series, Pensions Unpacked, exploring how workplace pensions fit into retirement strategies, and the technical details and decisions that come with the plans. The steady decline of defined-benefit (DB) pension plans has led to the creation of new pension models aimed at helping employees save money for retirement and employers seeking to attract and retain staff. The newer plans fall into the broad category of pooled pensions. Contributors combine their savings to benefit...

March 5, 2025
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05Mar

US Public Pension Funds Increased Allocations to Fixed Income in 2024

US public pension funds are raising their fixed-income allocations, but with equities still holding the largest share of portfolios, US small- and mid-cap stocks could present an opportunity, according to the National Conference on Public Employees Retirement System (NCPERS). Data from 201 US public pension funds revealed that while allocations to other asset classes declined in the first half of 2024, fixed-income investments saw a sharp increase. Equities remained the largest part of pension portfolios, averaging a 41.5% allocation, though this was down...

March 5, 2025
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04Mar

UK. DB schemes reconsidering long-term strategies amid market changes

Defined benefit (DB) pension schemes may be reconsidering their endgame strategies in light of recent market movements, PwC has said, after its Low Reliance Index continued to show a record surplus position, rising to £180bn in February 2025. PwC’s Buyout Index also recorded a surplus position of £90bn, demonstrating that DB pensions schemes continue to have, on average, sufficient assets to buyout their pension promises. PwC head of investment strategy, Sam Seadon, noted that there has been "something of a roller...

March 4, 2025
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04Mar

The Coming Revolution in Pension Investment Technology

Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is a hot topic on Wall Street. It’s the new gold rush. Many of us are already using large language models to pull up and assemble information, and sometimes even draft written reports. “Sandboxes” are popping up all over to ingest data in various forms and swiftly produce inferential analytics that would take days for humans. The stock market has gone gaga for companies with credible AGI or quantum computing potential. Some industry leaders are envisioning “superintelligent” systems that theoretically could outthink most...

March 4, 2025
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04Mar

UK. The People’s Pension Fund Revamps Investment Strategy

The People’s Pension has pulled more than US$35bn of investments from State Street over sustainability and ESG concerns, passing funds to Amundi & Invesco One of the UK's leading pension funds, the People’s Pension, has made a significant move by withdrawing £28bn (US$35bn) from State Street, as part of its strategic alignment towards enhanced Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals. This reshuffling involves reallocating a substantial £20bn (US$25bn) to Amundi, and another £8bn (US$10bn) to Invesco. Consequently, only £5bn (US$6.2bn) remains under State Street's management, notably reduced...

March 4, 2025
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04Mar

South Korea’s birthrate rebounds, but is it sustainable?

After nearly a decade of birth rates in steady decline, South Korea reversed that trend to report a significant uptick in newborns in 2024. Announced by the government-run Statistics Korea agency on February 26, a total of 238,300 babies were born last year, up 3.6% from a record low of just 230,000 in 2023. And while the increase is certainly grounds for celebration in a nation that is recognized as one of the most rapidly contracting and aging in the world, analysts caution that...

March 4, 2025
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03Mar

US. How Letting Go Of Federal Government Workers Will Impact The Job Market

President Trump’s administration has set its sights on shrinking the federal government’s workforce. It currently stands at approximately 2.3 million civilian employees. On February 26, 2025, Trump signed an Executive Order implementing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Cost Efficiency Initiative, directing agencies to root out potential fraud, and abuse in matters such as contracts, grants, payments, and travel expenses. Agencies were told to centralize technological systems to track payments, accompanied by written justifications, with plans for workforce reductions due by March 13, 2025....

March 3, 2025
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03Mar

Climate Change May Drive Premature Aging

A new USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology study suggests greater exposure to extreme heat may accelerate biological aging in older adults, raising new concerns about how climate change and heat waves could affect long-term health and aging at the molecular level. People in neighborhoods that experience more days of high heat show greater biological aging on average than residents of cooler regions, said Jennifer Ailshire, senior author of the study and professor of gerontology and sociology at the USC Leonard Davis School. Biological...

March 3, 2025
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03Mar

Brookfield eyes UK’s pensions risk deals with insurance spin-off

Brookfield, the North American asset manager, is set to muscle in on a lucrative area of the UK pensions industry dominated by Legal & General, Aviva, Standard Life and other British insurers. The Canadian-American firm will launch Brookfield Wealth Solutions (BWS), its insurance spin-off, as an entrant into the bulk annuity pensions market. This is where private companies with traditional defined-benefit pension schemes seek buy-in or buy-out deals to transfer their risks to insurers and life assurance companies. The UK pension...

March 3, 2025
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