November 2019

06Nov

Automating Emergency Savings for Retirement Plan Participants

At any given time, 20% of retirement plan participants have an outstanding loan from their workplace retirement plan, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. “Loan overutilization is one of the biggest problems plaguing retirement plans,” says Michael Webb, vice president of Cammack Retirement Group in New York City. “Many people are living paycheck to paycheck and have no emergency savings. Plan sponsors are concerned about this and don’t really know how to deal with the problem....

November 6, 2019
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05Nov

Australia. Call to cut tax breaks for rich retirees

The government should look to trim generous tax concessions for wealthy superannuation savers, worth more than $36bn a year, rather than aim to include the family home in the pension assets test, according to the Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association. CPSA policy manager Paul Versteege said the family home should not be included in the asset test because “the vast majority of people live in a modest house”. The Australian on Monday revealed more than 250,000 retirees living in...

November 5, 2019
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05Nov

China Life Pension Assets Doubled

China Life Pension has doubled its assets under management in the past 12 months to more than 1 trillion yuan ($142bn) and could soon join the ranks of the world’s largest pension funds over the next two years. Until recently, many Chinese provinces have managed their own pension funds. However, the central government in the past year has opened up the management of pension assets to a handful of domestic groups including China Life. It hopes that such moves...

November 5, 2019
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05Nov

Ireland. ‘700,000 to miss out’ on auto-enrol pension plan

Thousands of people are set to lose out on the State's new auto-enrolment pension scheme, which is already being heavily criticised for being years behind schedule. Read also Ireland. Quarter of people ‘can’t afford’ to save for retirement Pension consultants Mercer said around 700,000 people who should be opted into the new system look set to be excluded. Read also Ireland. Plans to auto-enrol workers in pension schemes announced The scheme is not due to be launched for another two...

November 5, 2019
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05Nov

In Japan’s ageing society, elderly are determined to resist the push towards cashless payments

Tokyo wants to double the ratio of cashless settlements to 40 per cent by 2025 and to 80 per cent eventually to spur labour productivity However, Japanese households hold more than half of their assets in cash and deposits and that proportion rises with the elderly Cash is king in Japan, and more so for the country’s rapidly ageing population who are still deeply reluctant to give it up. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s push to make more Japanese –...

November 5, 2019
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05Nov

Bulgaria. New proposal for the minimum pension

CITUB proposed the minimum pension to be increased by 14 percent or from BGN 219.43 to BGN 250 as of July 1, 2020. In this way, 850,000 retirees will receive this increase and will feel that this time the government, parliament and society are being empathetic and concerned, CITUB said. The CITUB has estimated that the additional cost for this measure is not negligible - about BGN 80 million, but it is fully achievable. "And the social and even political...

November 5, 2019
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04Nov

US. Coal Mine Workers Pension “Death” Deserves An Autopsy

A forensic review of the endangered mine workers pension should be undertaken immediately. Workers and retirees deserve answers and once the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation takes over the plan, it will be too late. The bankruptcy of Murray Energy, America’s largest private coal mining company has coal workers “nervous and scared” for their pensions, says CNN. The company is seeking to dramatically slash its liabilities through bankruptcy, including $8 billion of pension and retiree healthcare obligations. Murray...

November 4, 2019
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04Nov

Ireland. 54% of women who had State pensions reviewed after ‘cruel’ 2012 changes will get more money

54% OF WOMEN who had their State pensions reviewed following “cruel” 2012 changes are to get more money. Changes to the State pension introduced by the government in 2012 meant that carers who took time off work received less in their State pension – which particularly affected women who took time out to have children. Last year, Fine Gael promised to review the anomaly, and indicated that it would cost €55 million to fix it. The new approach meant...

November 4, 2019
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04Nov

UK. NHS misses deadline for staff pension statements

The NHS missed its three-month deadline for issuing pension statements to more than 4,000 staff this year as the service struggles to cope with requests from doctors worried about tax bills. Between January and September, the NHS pension scheme received 15,200 requests from hospital consultants for an annual allowance statement, which is needed to assess their tax position. But one in four of those requests — or 3,824 — were not completed within the target timeframe, according to a...

November 4, 2019
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04Nov

Canada. Are automatic DC plan features affecting the pension gender gap?

With cohorts in the workforce behaving differently as they prepare for retirement, it’s important for plan sponsors to consider these differences along gender and generational lines. At Benefits Canada’s 2019 Defined Contribution Investment Forum in Toronto on Sept. 27, Jean Young, senior research associate at the Vanguard Center for Investor Research, shared a survey that found women (60 per cent) are slightly more likely than men (58 per cent) to participate in voluntary retirement plans. However, women have a...

November 4, 2019
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