January 2022
21Jan

UK. MPs criticise ‘shameful’ underpaying of state pensions

The long-term underpayment of thousands of state pensioners, mainly widows, divorcees and women who rely on their husband’s pension contributions for some of their pension, is a “shameful shambles”, according to the public spending watchdog. About 134,000 people have had their state pension underpaid to the tune of £1bn, according to a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) estimate. The vast majority of those affected are women who should have had their pension topped up when their husband retired even if...

January 21, 2022
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
21Jan

Germany wants to attract 400,000 skilled workers from abroad each year

Germany's new coalition government wants to attract 400,000 qualified workers from abroad each year to tackle both a demographic imbalance and labour shortages in key sectors that risk undermining the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. "The shortage of skilled workers has become so serious by now that it is dramatically slowing down our economy," Christian Duerr, parliamentary leader of the co-governing Free Democrats (FDP), told business magazine WirtschaftsWoche. "We can only get the problem of an ageing workforce under control with...

January 21, 2022
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
21Jan

US. Pension funds pin their hopes on inflation

America’s biggest private sector pension plans did so badly last year that they earned barely half as much as the traditional low-risk, low-fee balanced portfolio of stocks and bonds. So report international pension consultants Milliman & Co. It says something about the usual performance of U.S. company pension plans that Milliman calls this 2021 result a “win.” (On the bright side, though, company pensions still did much better than Social Security, whose investments effectively lost money.) The 100 biggest private sector pension plans...

January 21, 2022
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
19Jan

Pensions dashboards should have interactive features, says ABI

Pensions dashboards should have interactive features to meet younger people’s digital needs, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI). The ABI commissioned research which found that seven in 10 working people would like dashboards to be interactive. The industry has been working on dashboards which will allow people to see all their pensions in one place for several years. Younger people were more likely than those of retirement age to want options which are not just “read-only”, including using modelling tools...

January 19, 2022
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
18Jan

Japan’s Sustainable Bond Market Helps Fund Aging Population

Japan is using the corporate bond market to tackle the challenge of having the world’s oldest population. Daiwa Securities Living Investment Corp. became the latest issuer to tap the market for social debt on Tuesday with the sale of a 10-year bond to refinance investments in facilities for the elderly at a coupon of 0.46%. Although the amount raised was only 2 billion yen ($17.5 million), the bond follows offers last year from Daiwa House Reit Investment Corp., United Urban Investment...

January 18, 2022
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
06Jan

UK pension risk settlements to see volumes of over £45bn in 2021: Aon

Aon expects the UK pension risk settlement market to see volumes of over £45 billion reported for full-year 2021, making it the third year in a row that it has reached this level. Compared with recent years, the market in the first half of 2021 was relatively subdued with £7.7 billion of bulk annuity deals completed. However, the pace then accelerated in the next six months and Aon expects that there will be close to £30 billion of bulk annuity deals...

January 6, 2022
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
06Jan

Commentary: China and ESG — a delicate balance

China and sustainable investing are two of the most important growth drivers for the asset management industry. So far, fund managers have pursued these two efforts in splendid isolation, without worrying about how activism at home might affect business in China. We expect this partition of affairs won't be sustainable for much longer. China represents the single most attractive new growth region for asset managers. It is already the second-largest market (after the U.S.) for asset management services: By year-end...

January 6, 2022
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...

December 2021
31Dec

Pension And Sovereign Wealth Funds Eye Crypto As Regulators Focus On A Global Crypto Framework

Nothing indicates the ascendance of an asset in the financial system more than a pension fund investing in it. It is the ultimate signal of arrival. The Houston Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement Fund (HFRRF) announced in 2021 that it was investing $25 million in bitcoin, the first time a U.S. pension fund invested in cryptocurrencies. The HFRRF investment is in collaboration with NYDIG through a customized private fund managed by NYDIG, the cryptoasset manager that just completed a $1 billion...

December 31, 2021
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
29Dec

US. Rising Inflation Viewed as Biggest Threat to Retirement in 2022

While Americans worried most about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, they now see rising inflation as the biggest risk to their retirement plans. According to Allianz Life’s annual New Year’s Resolutions Study, nearly half (48%) of respondents identified the pandemic as the most worrisome threat of 2021. However, in looking ahead to 2022, a full one-quarter of Americans now view rising inflation as the single greatest risk to their retirement plans—more than doubling from 2020, when only...

December 29, 2021
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...

October 2021
04Oct

Nigeria. Will the pension industry attain full potential?

Yes, when necessary measures are put in place and the right steps taken, argues Paddy Ezeala The inflation rate is still in double digits; way above 17%. Combined with the continued nosedive of the naira, investors are their wits’ end as to how to navigate the situation. This is not the best of times globally. Most economic indices are pointing downwards in the face of a protracted global Covid-19 pandemic. Great economies are usually those that, among other things, have...

October 4, 2021
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...