April 2022
15Apr

Kenya. Treasury cuts pensions and gratuity cash by Sh42bn

The Treasury has cut the budget for paying retired public servants by nearly Sh42.50 billion, pointing to a growing backlog which will not be cleared by end of June. The expenditure on pensions and gratuities for the current financial year has been slashed to Sh111.14 billion from earlier estimates of Sh153.64 billion, according to fresh estimates Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani has tabled in the National Assembly. This came after Mr Yatani said payroll for the public service pension was growing...

April 15, 2022
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
15Apr

Japan’s population down 640,000 in 2021, biggest drop on record

Japan's population totaled 125,502,000 as of Oct. 1, down 644,000 from a year earlier, marking the biggest decline on record, according to government data released Friday. The fall was attributed to stricter border restrictions propelled by the coronavirus pandemic, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said. The tally includes foreign nationals. Tokyo's population shrank for the first time in 26 years. All of Japan's 47 prefectures except Okinawa posted a fall in the number of residents in the year to...

April 15, 2022
News, Slider,
Read more...
15Apr

US. Mexican immigrants have to work longer due to inadequate Social Security benefits, study finds

Mexican immigrants are a critical part of the American workforce, but they are also financially vulnerable. As Emma Aguila explains in new research she co-authored in the Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Mexican immigrants face greater obstacles in securing social security benefits and therefore have to work later into life. Equally important, Aguila and her colleagues, Zeewan Lee and Rebeca Wong, found Mexicans who do receive those benefits are more likely to rely on them compared to non-Hispanic white populations. However, an...

April 15, 2022
News, Slider, , , ,
Read more...

March 2022

Over a third of people would accept lower pension savings for ethical investments
25Mar

Over a third of people would accept lower pension savings for ethical investments

More than a third (37 per cent) of people would be willing to accept some reduction in their pension savings if their investments were made more ethically, a study by the High Pay Centre and Survation has found. Read also UK. Creating a sustainable retirement plan Of those surveyed, two-thirds (66 per cent) said that they wanted their pension fund to reflect their ethical values and beliefs. Almost a third (29 per cent) considered insufficient pension savings as the biggest threat to...

March 25, 2022
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
US. Milliman analysis: Competitive pension risk transfer buyout rate hits all-time low in February, at 98.9%
25Mar

US. Milliman analysis: Competitive pension risk transfer buyout rate hits all-time low in February, at 98.9%

Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today announced the latest results of its Milliman Pension Buyout Index (MPBI). As the Pension Risk Transfer (PRT) market continues to grow, it has become increasingly important to monitor the annuity market for plan sponsors that are considering transferring retiree pension obligations to an insurer. During February, the estimated cost to transfer retiree pension risk to an insurer in a competitive bidding process decreased from 99.9% of a plan's total liabilities...

March 25, 2022
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
UK. Investment approach is increasingly key to pension endgames
25Mar

UK. Investment approach is increasingly key to pension endgames

Aon has said that with 2022 promising to be another active year in the UK pension risk settlement market, an increasing number of schemes are focusing on their investment approach in the bid to be ‘settlement ready’. Aon’s recently released Global Pension Risk Survey 2021/22 showed that more UK defined benefit (DB) pension schemes are now opting for buyout as their long-term target rather than just self-sufficiency. To prepare for that, schemes are ever more aware that they need to...

March 25, 2022
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
China:National Pension Insurance Co receives green light to start operations
24Mar

China: National Pension Insurance Co receives green light to start operations

The CBIRC has given approval to the newly established National Pension Insurance Company to commence operations, making it the 10th standalone pension insurer operating in China. The business scope of the new company includes: annuity insurance, life insurance, accident insurance, health insurance; reinsurance business of the above-mentioned businesses; management of clients' yuan and foreign-currency denominated funds for the purpose of old-age security, etc. The National Pension Insurance Co is set up to serve as an impetus for the development of the...

March 24, 2022
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
UK. Creating a sustainable retirement plan
24Mar

UK. Creating a sustainable retirement plan

ESG is becoming more commonplace within retirement strategies. Indeed, recent figures from Aviva, highlighted that an strong majority (72%) of pension savers consider such initiatives to be important when developing their long term financial plans. As such, more and more pensions schemes and businesses operating within the retirement industry are prioritising ESG above most other investment considerations. For example, the Universities Superannuation Scheme Britain’s largest pension scheme – announced plans to completely disinvest in companies involved with coal mining, tobacco...

March 24, 2022
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
COVID pandemic fuelled 2021 population drop in 73% of U.S. counties
24Mar

COVID pandemic fueled 2021 population drop in 73% of U.S. counties

The toll of the COVID-19 pandemic was reflected in a natural decrease last year in the population of nearly three-quarters of U.S. counties versus the two previous years, the census bureau said on Thursday. Read also US. Milliman analysis: Competitive pension risk transfer buyout rate hits all-time low in February, at 98.9% More than 73% of U.S. counties experienced natural decrease, or an excess of deaths over births, up from 55.5% in 2020 and 45.5% in 2019, bureau data showed. Read also...

March 24, 2022
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
US. Mixed Reports on Retirement Funding
23Mar

US. Mixed Reports on Retirement Funding

A defined benefit plan’s funded status is often cited as an indication of the plan’s financial health and there is good news on that score for the largest U.S. plans. A report from Willis Towers Watson shows that the estimated aggregate funded status of 361 Fortune 1000 companies improved to 96% at the end of 2021. That’s the highest level since 2007 and an increase of five percentage points from 2020. The analysis also found the funding deficit is...

March 23, 2022
News, Slider, , , ,
Read more...