March 2021
05Mar

US. Stimulus Bill Freezes Retirement Plan Contribution Limits

What You Need to Know The freeze would take effect in 2031. It is intended to reduce a tax deferment that favors the highest earners, Democrats say. Retirement plan lobbyists are working to get the provision stripped from the Senate version of the bill. The $1.9 trillion economic stimulus package, which passed the House on Feb. 27, freezes retirement plan contribution limits starting in 2031. The bill, H.R. 1319, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, would freeze the annual cost-of-living...

March 5, 2021
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05Mar

E.U. Pushes Companies to Close Gender Pay Gap

Pushing member states to address salary disparities between men and women, the European Union revealed details on Thursday of a proposed law that would require companies to divulge gender pay gaps and give job candidates access to salary information in employment interviews. It also would provide women with better tools to fight for equal pay. The move comes as female workers across the world have been disproportionately affected by the economic repercussions of the coronavirus crisis, and it could lead...

March 5, 2021
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05Mar

Chile pension reform: The big bone of contention hampering progress

The Chilean government has amended its pension reform proposals. The administration’s bill was originally submitted in 2018 and has since undergone modifications amid pressure from the opposition. Read also Financial wellness can foster pension system in China It remains stuck in the senate after being greenlighted by the lower house in December 2019. Read also Canada. Pensions seek clear strategies, lower costs through in-house management Against this backdrop, Chileans are due to elect a new president to replace Sebastián Piñera. Under the center-right leader’s latest...

March 5, 2021
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05Mar

Vietnam gets its first private defined contribution plan

Dragon Capital VietFund Management, a Ho Chi Minh-based money management firm, has launched Vietnam's first private sector retirement savings vehicle. The defined contribution plan, with government tax incentives for employees and employers alike, offers savers three fund options — a relatively high-risk 50-50 split between equities and bonds, a 65% bond-35% stock mix and a conservative 80% bond-20% stock mix. Savings can be withdrawn tax-free upon reaching retirement age, currently 62 for men and 60 for woman. Life insurers in Vietnam have...

March 5, 2021
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04Mar

How Covid-19 revealed under-appreciated risks

“Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked,” legendary investor Warren Buffett once said. While few portfolio managers anticipated the sheer speed and force with which the waters receded during Covid-19 – or the swiftness of their return, the impact of the pandemic made clear that potential risks exist that may not have been seriously appreciated before. Read also Covid-19 Is Most Certainly A Retirement Story The coronavirus crisis sparked a “huge realisation of how risks in...

March 4, 2021
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04Mar

UK Budget: Sunak freezes lifetime allowance for pensions contributions

By Jenna Brown, Christopher Copper-Ind Britain's finance minister, Rishi Sunak, has frozen the lifetime allowance (LTA) for pension contributions at just over £1m for the remainder of this Parliament, and will be keeping IHT at the current level for a further five years. Read also UK. Women retirees win £2.7bn for underpaid pensions The Chancellor said the LTA would remain at its current level of £1,073,100 for 2020/21 rather than increasing in line with inflation. It had been expected to rise by...

March 4, 2021
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04Mar

Fraudsters prey on the fears of China’s aging population.

Shady retirement home and investment schemes have cheated China’s rapidly aging population out of hundreds of millions of dollars, spurring more than a thousand criminal cases in recent years. In a society that traditionally relied on family members to take care of elderly parents, fraudsters have been able to prey on fears that changing social norms and scarce resources will leave older people bereft, report Alexandra Stevenson and Cao Li for The New York Times. By 2025, more than 300 million...

March 4, 2021
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04Mar

UK. Women retirees win £2.7bn for underpaid pensions

About 200,000 women could be in line for payouts averaging £13,500 to top-up the underpayment of their state pension for up to two decades. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) revealed details of the underpayments on Wednesday. The errors focus on automatic cash increases for certain married women, widows and over-80s dating back to 1992 with "enhanced" pensions. The DWP estimated the bill for tackling the shortfalls to be about £2.7bn. The underpayment relates to the "old" state pension system - affecting...

March 4, 2021
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03Mar

Can the United States accelerate sustainability in financial regulations?

In the last few years, while multiple countries have made progress in developing sustainable-finance plans to help direct investment to climate solutions and environmentally beneficial companies and products, the United States, under the administration of former President Donald Trump, moved to weaken environmental regulations and discourage sustainable investing. With the arrival of President Joe Biden’s administration, the United States could rapidly roll out policies to make up lost ground. Sustainable-finance plans advance globally Around the globe, countries are stepping up to...

March 3, 2021
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03Mar

Financial wellness can foster pension system in China

By Daisy Ho China faces mounting pension and retirement challenges, but it's not without silver linings. It's well known that China's huge and rapidly aging population will grapple with a shortage of pension coverage that looks set to worsen over the next few years. There is no quick fix for state pensions falling short of growing retirement needs, but policymakers see promoting private retirement saving schemes as a key means of filling the gap. Here, we see some encouraging signs, especially when...

March 3, 2021
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