March 2019

19Mar

Only half of Americans have access to a 401(k)

Using a 401(k) plan to save for retirement is an attractive option: You get tax advantages, the funds are automatically taken out of your paycheck for you and sometimes your company even matches your contribution up to a certain amount, which is essentially free money. But many Americans don’t have access to this specific retirement tool. “Roughly half of all households are offered work-based retirement plans at their current jobs,” researchers at the Stanford Center on Longevity point out...

March 19, 2019
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19Mar

Canada’s Biggest Pension Fund Mulls Opening First China Office

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which manages around C$368.5 billion ($277 billion), is considering opening its first office in China as it seeks greater exposure to the world’s second-largest economy. Canada’s largest pension fund investor could open an office in Beijing as soon as next year, Hong Kong-based head of Asia Pacific Suyi Kim said in an interview this month. Staff there would then work closely with CPPIB’s 130 employees in Hong Kong, which have helped to invest C$42...

March 19, 2019
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19Mar

Pension Risk Transfer Volume Blows Past Forecasts

U.S. life insurers took over more pension responsibility than they might have expected in 2018. Full-year sales of group annuities used to transfer pension risk increased to about $26 billion in 2018, up 15% from the total for 2017, according to new issuer survey data from the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute. In June, Wayne Daniel, head of U.S. pensions at MetLife, predicted pension plan sponsors might use group annuities to transfer about $20 billion in pension risk in 2018....

March 19, 2019
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18Mar

Principal Financial close to Wells Fargo retirement unit acquisition-sources

Principal Financial Group Inc is in advanced talks to acquire Wells Fargo & Co’s retirement plan services business, in a deal that could exceed $1 billion, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday. Wells Fargo has been seeking to streamline its business as it grapples with the fallout of customer abuse scandals. The bank is prohibited from growing in size after the Federal Reserve slapped it with an unprecedented asset cap in February 2018, citing “widespread consumer abuses and...

March 18, 2019
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18Mar

How CPPIB is tapping ‘alternative data’ to refine its investment processes

CPPIB has assembled a team to experiment with different kinds of information in making longer-term investment decisions There was a time when the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board didn’t even make “alternative” investments. Now, Canada’s biggest pension fund says it is sifting through “alternative” forms of data to try to improve its investment decisions. CPPIB has assembled what it calls a “data-driven edge” team, a small group of investors and data scientists that are experimenting with different kinds of information in...

March 18, 2019
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18Mar

Public Pensions And Social Trust

So it seems that I hit the one-year mark of my writing on retirement at this platform, and have still not managed to address some of the topics I wanted to discuss, in particular, questions of what pensions look like abroad and what we can learn from them.  But right now I find myself thinking about international comparisons in another way, around the question of social trust. Round about a year ago, Megan McArdle, formerly a Bloomberg columnist and now writing at...

March 18, 2019
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15Mar

UK. Pensioners risk £68,000 shortfall as they underestimate the cost of retirement

Pensioners risk a shortfall of more than £68,000 over the course of their retirement as 33% of Brits expect to survive solely on their state pension, new research from Nationwide Building Society shows Based on today’s pensioner spending habits, those retiring in future could be close to £400 out of pocket each month due to a gap between expectations and reality. This significant miscalculation could prove to be a major setback to tomorrow’s pensioners enjoying their later life – forcing...

March 15, 2019
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15Mar

Goldman Sachs creates new superannuation, pensions role for Australia

Goldman Sachs has demonstrated their focus on Australia and New Zealand's superannuation and pensions space with the creation of a new role. Rory MacEwan will become head of superannuation and pensions funds for Goldman Sachs in Australia and New Zealand. This is a newly created position for Goldman Sachs that will sit within their financial and strategic investors group. Goldman Sachs' head of investment banking Christian Johnston said: "This appointment demonstrates our increased focus on these important clients." MacEwan joined...

March 15, 2019
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15Mar

Why Americans must rise to the challenge of an aging population

At dawn on his 62nd birthday in 1366, Petrarch started a letter to his friend Boccaccio. “When you feel that you are old,” the Italian humanist told his fellow writer, “then and no sooner will you declare your old age.” Why should we care about old age any more now than Petrarch did then? Demographics. Every day until 2030, about 10,000 Americans will turn 65. Between now and 2050, the number of Americans over 65 will double. By then,...

March 15, 2019
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15Mar

Wealthy millennial women are more likely to defer to their husbands on investing

When it comes to managing money long-term, wealthy women are opting out of responsibility and deferring to their male partners. Investment bank UBS polled 3,700 married women, widows, and divorcees across nine countries. All the interviewees were classified as high-net-worth individuals. The survey found that while the women were very likely to take an active role in day-to-day money management, they were much less likely to have responsibility for longterm financial planning tools like savings, investments, pension management, and...

March 15, 2019
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