August 2019

12Aug

US. DOL Expands Retirement Plan Options For Smaller Businesses

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has released a final rule which should make it easier for smaller businesses to provide retirement plans to their employees. According to the DOL, the rule will enable more small and midsize unrelated businesses to join forces in multiple employer plans (MEPs) that provide their employees a defined contribution plan such as a 401(k) plan or a SIMPLE IRA plan. Certain self-employed individuals also can participate in MEPs. In October 2018, the DOL...

August 12, 2019
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12Aug

UK. L&G in dash for all-in-one pension dashboard

Legal & General has jumped the gun on the government’s plans for a state-backed service enabling people to see all their pension entitlements on one web page and snapped up a private financial technology company attempting to provide a dashboard service. The insurer said it had bought the company behind My Future Now for an undisclosed sum and would be making its service available to customers and financial advisers. My Future Now was founded in Poole, Dorset, and enables...

August 12, 2019
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12Aug

Nigeria. Ibadan to host first pensioners’ radio in Africa

Oyo State Chapter of Nigerian Union of Pensioners’ (NUP) Radio station, “Pensioners Radio” will be commissioned in September by Governor Seyi Makinde. The union’s secretary, Comrade Segun Abatan, broke the news when the management of Oyo State Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, led by its Permanent Secretary, Dr. Bashir Olanrewaju, visited the Pensioners’ House at Jericho, Ibadan, to witness the test transmission of the radio station. Abatan said the radio station was the first of its kind in...

August 12, 2019
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12Aug

How Brexit Will Affect the UK Fintech Industry? Experts Answer

Back in 2016, there was a referendum that caused Brexit, which has since been affecting all spheres of British life. Would Brexit’s effects be positive or negative for the fintech industry in the United Kingdom? We asked experts from the London Fintech Week, the U.K. in a Changing Europe, the University of Nottingham and more. Meanwhile — and this should be underlined — a lot of experts declined to give comments on such a politically sensitive topic. While the...

August 12, 2019
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09Aug

UK. The rise of the Fintech sector

The UK’s Fintech (Financial Technology) sector is on the rise – despite Brexit uncertainty investors have put $16bn into the UK fintech market in just the first-half of 2018, a level of investment surpassing that of both the US and China. The UK remains the main hub in Europe for financial technology start-ups, providing over 60,000 jobs. Cloud Computing & The Foundations of Banking: In a highly competitive market, high-street banks are in pursuit of digital transformation with business...

August 9, 2019
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09Aug

Club Vita Unveils New Model for Predicting Life Expectancy Based on ZIP+4 Codes, Modernizing Longevity Risk Management Techniques for U.S. Pension Plans

Club Vita, a provider of longevity risk data, announced today the publication of a new white paper, “Zooming in on ZIP Codes,” which addresses how integrating ZIP codes and identifying other socioeconomic factors can help pension plan sponsors better capture diversity and sharpen life expectancy estimates for their participants. Having accurate estimates is essential for sponsors as they assess how much money to save to make their future payments. Club Vita teamed up with Mercer, a global consulting leader...

August 9, 2019
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09Aug

Brazilian Hedge Funds Are Betting Big on Stocks

Brazil’s top hedge fund managers are increasing bets that the stock market will be the best place to profit from the government’s expanding reform agenda. Firms including Verde Asset Management, which has almost 40 billion reais ($10.1 billion) under management, and Bahia Asset Management increased their holdings of local equities after the pension system overhaul cleared its biggest hurdle in the lower house last month. BlueLine Asset Management, which recently launched its first fund, is favoring Brazilian shares over...

August 9, 2019
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09Aug

Engaging stakeholders for the long term

Stakeholder engagement is important for listed corporations. In the 2018 revisions to the Code of Corporate Governance, a new pillar and principle was added for “Managing Stakeholder Relationships”. A stakeholder is here defined as a party that has an interest in the corporation and can either affect or be affected by it. Many people associate stakeholders with the employees, customers, suppliers and, of course, shareholders of the company. However, companies should take note that their material stakeholders should extend...

August 9, 2019
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09Aug

US. Privacy: The Next Retirement Plan Frontier

The loss of Americans’ privacy through the growing use of their data continues to be a major topic in the media. This focus is now turning to the retirement industry. Plan and participant data plays a key role in our retirement system – from the basic operation of retirement plans, to designing wellness solutions, implementing distributions and beyond. Almost all aspects of plan operation and participant interaction rely on data. Notably, plaintiffs’ lawyers have begun to focus on...

August 9, 2019
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08Aug

US. Public pensions returns lowest in three years

More trouble could be on the horizon for American’s big pension plans. Publicly-funded plans with more than $1 billion in assets generated a median return of 6.79 percent in the 12 months that ended on June 30, according to data from Wilshire Consulting provided exclusively to The Wall Street Journal. Public pension plans expect to generate a median return of 7.25 percent, which means the past year fell short of expectations – for the first time since 2016, as...

August 8, 2019
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