November 2019

US. Longevity Project explores the nuanced implications of longer life

As longer life expectancy brings about substantial changes in the make-up of American society, Americans are still grappling with the implications of longer life on how we work, live and learn, according to a poll fielded by the Longevity Project, a new initiative developed in collaboration with the Stanford Center on Longevity (SCL). Read also Young people are saving more for retirement than Boomers and Generation X — and this is why The mission of the Longevity Project is...

Netherlands Spares Pensioners Cuts in 2020 as Funds Rebuild Ratios

Millions of Dutch pensioners were spared cuts to their retirement income in 2020 after the government granted pension funds a year's grace period to restore sagging coverage ratios, although it said future cuts and higher premiums are likely. The retreat by Mark Rutte's centrist government had been widely expected, given anger among pensioners and national elections due in 2021. But the decision could hurt the reputation of the Netherlands' pension system, often rated 'best in the world' and framed...

US. Fisher Investments loses Chicago police pension; total losses exceed $3 billion

The Chicago police pension fund is ending its $67 million relationship with Fisher Investments. The Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago joins a number of institutional investors that have cut ties with the Camas, Washington-based asset manager following sexist comments billionaire founder Ken Fisher made at a conference on Oct. 8. There, he likened winning new clients to picking up women at a bar. The Windy City’s police pension fund has about $2.6 billion in total assets as...

Less than 10pc Kenyans to retire comfortably on pension

Less than a tenth of pension schemes are providing sufficient benefits to comfortably sustain members in retirement, an actuarial consulting firm says, revealing the pain retirees undergo despite making lifetime savings while employed. According to the survey done by Actuarial Services East Africa (Actserv), retirees in defined benefit schemes have it worse than their counterparts in contributory schemes. The firm measured the adequacy of benefits using a ratio of income after retirement to income immediately before retirement, with an...

Mexican president defends indigenous pensions plan

Mexico’s president on Monday defended a plan to provide pensions to indigenous people starting at age 65, compared with 68 for other Mexicans. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who was elected last year after campaigning to help marginalized people, said those who question the idea should visit poor indigenous communities to see how residents live. He said indigenous seniors in poor areas are often in worse health than city-dwelling counterparts due to decades of hard labor and poor nutrition. “It...

US. Understanding The FedEx Pension Closure

“FedEx Closes Pension Plan to New Hires”: that’s the headline at the Wall Street Journal today. Or, as the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported, “FedEx to launch a new 401k plan with a higher match, but no pension with it. ” Superficially, it looks like a repeat of the same old story of employers taking pensions away from their employees. But, in fact, there are a few wrinkles here. In the first place, FedEx had already frozen its traditional pension plan,...

The human face of pension management

The Pensions Act 2004 placed more responsibility on employers to manage and protect their employees’ final salary pension benefits. Many companies welcomed the move, but subsequently found the additional requirements to address shortfalls in scheme funding and regulation an expensive and time-consuming administrative burden. As a result, a growing number of defined benefit pension scheme trustees and sponsors started to choose to transfer the risks associated with their pension schemes to specialist insurers such as the Pension Insurance Corporation...

German parliament approves climate protection law

The German lower house of parliament approved on Friday a major climate protection package which aims to ensure Germany will meet its 2030 target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Read also Can fintech bridge the inequality gap The package, agreed after months of haggling between the Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and her Social Democrat coalition partners, has already been criticized as inadequate in view of the urgent challenges posed by climate change. Read also Impact investing is about more...

Millions Of Kenyans Missing Out On Pension Schemes, Warns NSSF

About 15 million Kenyans who are eligible to make saving towards retirement benefits are not enrolled with any pension scheme, the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has revealed. The Fund’s Managing Trustee Antony Omerikwa observed that most pension schemes registered by the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) focused on covering employees of state corporations, companies and individual owned organizations. Omerikwa stated that though the bulk of Kenyans were engaged in the informal sector, pension schemes in the country had done little to...

Pensioners struggling to survive join Chile protests

Seventy-seven-year-old María Gonzalez is tired of waking up, Monday to Friday, to sell toilet paper in the Chilean capital. Her meager $146 monthly pension puts her below the poverty line, which in Chile is around $222 a month. “I feel tired. Honestly, I’m exhausted. These last 15 days that I have been at home, I slept and ate,” Gonzalez told The Associated Press after protests shut down public transport and made it impossible for her to reach the city to...