December 2021
01Dec

How Staying Physically Active May Protect the Aging Brain

Staying physically active as we age substantially drops our risk of developing dementia during our lifetimes, and it doesn’t require prolonged exercise. Walking or moving about, rather than sitting, may be all it takes to help bolster the brain, and a new study of octogenarians from Chicago may help to explain why. The study, which tracked how often older people moved or sat and then looked deep inside their brains after they passed away, found that certain vital immune cells...

December 1, 2021
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01Dec

UK universities hit by strike action over pay and pensions

More than a million students will be hit by three days of strikes on campuses across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland starting on Wednesday, in the latest round of an increasingly bitter dispute in which university leaders have accused leftwingers within the University and College Union (UCU) of blocking progress over a possible deal. Fifty-eight universities will be affected where staff backed a ballot on strike action called by the UCU, halting lectures and tuition at the country’s largest universities,...

December 1, 2021
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01Dec

US. Corporate pension buyouts hit $15.8 billion in Q3 LIMRA survey

Pension buy-in transactions, in which an insurer reimburses the company for benefit payments the plan will make to its retirees and beneficiaries, are very common in the U.K., but rare in the U.S. Mark Paracer, assistant research director at the Secure Retirement Institute, said in a news release Tuesday that the combined year-to-date volume for buyout and buy-in sales of $25 billion sets the stage for the U.S. pension risk transfer market to exceed the record $36 billion set in...

December 1, 2021
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November 2021
30Nov

Why Is Africa’s Largest Pension Pulling Out of Africa’s Largest Asset Management Firm?

Africa’s largest pension, the South Africa-based Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), allowed its contract with the country’s Public Investment Corporation (PIC) to lapse, effectively pulling $4.4 billion out of the continent’s largest asset manager. Read also Here Are The Regulatory Changes In The Kenyan Pensions Industry For the $110 billion pension, this equates to approximately 4% of its total assets under management (AUM). The contract was five years long and expired this past March. Read also Bosnia miners end 9-day protest after...

November 30, 2021
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30Nov

UK government floats plan to relax fee limit on pension fund investments

A fee limit protecting UK retirement savers from high charges is poised to be loosened further under proposals aimed at prompting pension funds to put billions of pounds into unlisted investments like private equity. On Tuesday the government will announce plans to allow “well-designed” performance fees, typically levied by private equity and venture capital managers, to be excluded from a workplace pension fee cap, according to details of the proposal seen by the Financial Times. These fees are currently included in...

November 30, 2021
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30Nov

US. The Importance of Good Data for DB Plan PRT Activities

It’s important for plan sponsors to have clean data on defined benefit (DB) plan participants to help them identify and validate deaths, locate participants and beneficiaries, and manage uncashed checks, according to speakers at a webinar, “The Data Dilemma: The Impact Bad Data Has on a Pension Plan,” presented by Pension Benefit Information (PBI) Research Services and DIETRICH. Mike Irey, director of operations at PBI Research, told webinar attendees that plans can have inaccurate or missing personal identifiable information (PII)...

November 30, 2021
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29Nov

US. SEC guidance opens the door for more ESG proxy proposal

More shareholder proposals with a focus on environmental and social issues are likely to make it onto company proxy statements in 2022, thanks to new Securities and Exchange Commission guidance, sources said. In a legal bulletin published Nov. 3, the SEC's division of corporation finance rescinded its last three legal bulletins — promulgated under the Trump administration — related to Exchange Act Rule 14a-8, that concern shareholder proposals. The latest bulletin also outlined changes in the division's views on what...

November 29, 2021
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29Nov

Spain. Inflation At 5.6% Forces Pensions Up By 2.5%

Inflation rose by 5.6% in November compared to last year, two tenths of a percentage point higher than in October, and its highest level since September 1992. The preliminary data, published on Monday by the National Statistics Institute (INE), mark new annual highs for inflation in Spain, which has risen without interruption since March. The agency blames the rise on increases in food prices and, to a lesser extent, in fuel and lubricants for vehicles. On a more positive...

November 29, 2021
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29Nov

Here Are The Regulatory Changes In The Kenyan Pensions Industry

As of the end of 2020, the pension industry ranked second as the most preferred mode of saving with assets worth 1.4 trillion shillings after bank deposits at 4.0 trillion shillings. The graph below highlights the sizes of different saving channels and capital market products in Kenya as of December 2020: Despite the historical growth, there is still room for improvement given that the Kenyan Pension Schemes’ AUM was equivalent to 13.3 percent of the country’s GDP in 2020. Compared to other...

November 29, 2021
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29Nov

Chinese government push for better maternity leave met with shrugs or concerns it will promote discrimination against women

A dozen regional governments in China have lengthened maternity leave allowances in the past month to incentivise families to have more children amid concerns of an impending demographic crisis. However, many people questioned whether the policies would make any difference in China’s collapsing birth rate and pointed out that it could increase discrimination against women in the workforce. Some rule changes allow women to more than double their maternity leave, while others are making policies that increase maternity perks as families...

November 29, 2021
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