July 2019

18Jul

U.S. Some Good News On Multiemployer Pensions

How, you ask, can there possibly be good news on multiemployer pensions? The updated 2019 PBGC projections aren't out yet but there's no reason to believe the numbers are any better than last year's "insolvency in 2025" multi-employer PBGC fund projections; likewise, the government's form 5500 data, the source for publicly-available information on plan funded status, only has updated data for a handful of plans. The House is getting closer to voting on the same bill that failed last year, the Butch Lewis Act,...

July 18, 2019
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18Jul

Pension cuts likely as low interest rates hit biggest Dutch funds

The company pensions of some eight million people may be cut next year because the four biggest pension funds do not have the legally required volume of assets. The giant civil service fund ABP, which is one of the biggest in the world, the healthcare fund Zorg & Welzijn, and engineering funds PMT and PME are all in the danger zone, due to the current very low interest rates. All four funds have booked a return on investment...

July 18, 2019
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17Jul

Europe. Welfare Ministry requests EUR 54 million for welfare priorities in Latvia

Among the ministry’s priorities are different initiatives, including the increase of minimal pensions, improvement of the pension indexation mechanism, state support for the poor who have disabled children, and others. This will require EUR 27.5 million, for which the minister is prepared to fight. According to the minister, there are many different needs, including Latvia’s Castle of Light and the expensive bridge. There is also the need for an acoustic concert hall in Riga. Nevertheless, Petraviča believes a situation...

July 17, 2019
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17Jul

Africa. Treasury calls for pensions funding of infrastructure

The Treasury has joined a growing chorus for pension schemes to pool funds for big-ticket infrastructure projects to ease overreliance on expensive debt. Mr Stanley Kamau, the acting director-general for Public Investments and Portfolio Management at the Treasury, said the Sh1 trillion pension industry can help plug part of the country’s infrastructure finance gap. Kenya’s deficit in projects such as roads, power plants and lines, bridges, water and houses is conservatively estimated at more than Sh400 billion a year....

July 17, 2019
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17Jul

Japan’s Answer to Its Pension Problems: Invest Like the U.S.

An official report advising Japanese couples to have at least $185,000 of their own savings for retirement has shaken up an election race and triggered a wave of interest in investing in a country where retirees have long counted chiefly on state pensions. On a recent weekend, a seminar on money management was packed with investment beginners. Mitsugu Kanda, a 28-year-old printing-company salesman, said he was thinking of putting money into stocks to help him accumulate the suggested amount....

July 17, 2019
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17Jul

US. Coloradans support state-operated retirement savings plan for private workers, poll says

More than two-thirds of Colorado voters support the state creating a retirement savings plan for private-sector employees whose employers do not offer one, according to a new survey commissioned by a political group that pushes progressive legislation at statehouses across the nation. The results of the poll, first reported by The Denver Post, come about a week after Gov. Jared Polis appointed eight people to help study how Colorado could join a small but growing number of states that...

July 17, 2019
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17Jul

Africa. Treasury bars early access to pension money

You will no longer be able to access pension contributions from your employer until retirement. In another flip-flop of the pension regulations, the National Treasury has reversed regulations that had allowed employees to withdraw up to half of pension contributions by their employers before they attained retirement age. LONG-TERM The policy, which was popular for employees in the private sector, had caused a major discomfort in the pension industry which had come to be accustomed to staying with retirement...

July 17, 2019
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16Jul

India. Congress submits adjournment motion notice in LS over ‘pension of disabled Army personnel’

An adjournment motion is an extraordinary procedure which, if admitted, leads to setting aside the normal business of the House for discussing a definite matter of urgent public importance. The disability pension till now was not taxed by the government but recently, the government decided to tax it leading to opposition from the veterans community. On July 2, the Army headquarters clarified that though it is concerned for all personnel who are invalidated out of service in combat conditions...

July 16, 2019
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16Jul

US. Gov. Bevin: Special session on pensions to start Friday

A long-anticipated special legislative session will convene later this week in an effort to deliver relief for regional universities and quasi-governmental agencies strapped by surging pension costs, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin announced Monday. Lawmakers will meet starting at 8 a.m. Friday at the state Capitol in Frankfort, the Republican governor's office said. An official proclamation listing the special session's agenda will be issued later this week, Bevin's office said in a news release. It takes at least five working...

July 16, 2019
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16Jul

US. Senate split over retirement savings bill

The House of Representatives passed the Secure Act, a bill that would create more opportunities for Americans to save for retirement, with overwhelming bipartisan consent in May. But the bill is stalled in the Senate. The legislation could die in the upper chamber if it is not passed by a floor vote, unanimous consent, as an updated Senate bill or attached to another bill that must pass (typically these are spending bills). In other words, the bill is not...

July 16, 2019
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