June 2019

13Jun

France. Macron to Tackle French State Pensions in Mother-of-All-Reforms

France isn’t done with reforms. That’s the core message Prime Minister Edouard Philippe aimed to get across in Parliament Wednesday. “We have reasons to be proud of the work we’ve done and we have the legitimacy to keep going,” Philippe said in a 66-minute speech laying out what he called “Act II” of Emmanuel Macron’s presidency. “We’ve done a lot in the past two years and we need to do a lot more," he added. "Our enemy is the...

June 13, 2019
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13Jun

Uproar over $185,000 shortfall puts Japan pension reform on hold

A public uproar has forced the government to retract a controversial report claiming that retired couples reliant on public pensions also need sizable savings, but this backpedaling could further delay Japan's much needed reckoning with the overburdened program. The report compiled by a Financial Services Agency council earlier this month showed that a household with a 65-year-old husband and a 60-year-old wife would need an additional 20 million yen ($184,000) in assets if they live another 30 years. The...

June 13, 2019
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13Jun

US retirement accounts are growing, but not fast enough

Vanguard has released its annual How America Saves 2019 report. It’s a snapshot of the state of retirement in America that focuses on defined benefit accounts, which are mostly in the form of 401(k)s. 1. Despite the market downturn in 2018 (the S&P 500 was down about 6%), the average defined contribution plan last year increased 4%, largely because participants were saving more. The increase counted only those who also had accounts in 2017, not new accounts. 2. More...

June 13, 2019
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13Jun

Can Bangladesh develop a national pension system?

A future for Bangladesh’s senior citizens Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, and the eighth-largest by population. The number of people over 60 years of age has been projected to increase from about 9.8 million (6.5% of total population) to 18.1 million (10% of total population) by 2026 and 44.1 million people (20.2% of total population) by 2051 in Bangladesh. The average life expectancy of a Bangladeshi is now...

June 13, 2019
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12Jun

Legal and General launch pension risk blockchain

U.K.-based Legal and General (L&G), the U.K.’s number one retail life insurer, announced it’s launching a blockchain solution for pension risk transfer through Legal and General Reinsurance. The group has more than a trillion pounds ($1.27 trillion) in assets under management. One often hears of large companies with pension deficits. The assets they have accumulated to support their defined benefit pension schemes are less than the liabilities for pension annuities. That’s often the result of investment returns differing...

June 12, 2019
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12Jun

New Trends in Asset Allocation: Mercer Report Takes the Pulse of Retirement Plans across the Globe

Mercer report uncovers asset allocation and investment trends on nearly US$5 trillion1 in assets under management (AUM) from government, corporate, and mandatory pension schemes across Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Malaysia’s Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has increased its foreign equity allocation, and increased efforts to diversify portfolios, including higher exposure to alternatives. Both EPF and government pension fund (KWAP) combined asset allocation maintains a strong bias for domestic equities and Malaysian government fixed income securities....

June 12, 2019
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12Jun

Vanguard study finds employers, employees improving retirement plan behaviors

The report noted that 48% of Vanguard plans at the end of 2018 featured automatic enrollment and 66% of new plan entrants were enrolled via automatic enrollment. This compares with 46% of plans that featured automatic enrollment last year, and just 20% of plans that offered it in 2008. Including employee and employer contributions, the average 15-year total participant contribution rate in 2018 was 10.6% and the median was 9.8%, the report found. Two-thirds of auto-enrollment plans have implemented...

June 12, 2019
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12Jun

Zimbabwe. Unclaimed pension funds reach $27m

About 50 000 pensioners have not received their pension payouts with unclaimed pension funds now amounting to more than ZWL$27 million, the industry regulator has said. Speaking during a meeting with funds trustees in Chinhoyi yesterday, Insurance and Pension Commission (Ipec) spokesperson, Lloyd Gumbo, said the regulator was worried about the substantial amount that is lying idle while the owners are probably wallowing in abject poverty. "The commission is concerned with the number of pensioners who do not know...

June 12, 2019
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11Jun

New York Comptroller Aims to Double Pension Plan’s ESG Funding

New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli pledges to double the New York State Common Retirement Fund’s sustainable investments. That will bring the pension program’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG)investments to $20 billion over the next decade. To aid in that effort, he will next create a multi-asset climate solutions program, which will operate similarly to its emerging manager program. It will work with managers, consultants, and index providers on creating alignment with the fund’s sustainability goals. The fund intends to better assess its...

June 11, 2019
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11Jun

Japan. Release of data needed for debate on effectiveness of pension system

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and all his ministers attended a June 10 session of the Upper House Audit Committee. As the ruling coalition has refused to convene a Budget Committee meeting in either house, it marked the first time in two months that Abe responded to questions concerning national policy issues at the Diet. Opposition questions focused on a recently published controversial Financial Services Agency report that says a typical elderly Japanese couple needs an additional 20 million yen ($184,175) to...

June 11, 2019
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