March 2019

14Mar

Scottish public pension fund partners with MSIM on sustainability

Scottish Borders Council Pension Fund has become the first UK local authority pension fund to invest in Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s (MSIM) Global Sustain Strategy. Launched in 2018, the strategy is managed by MSIM’s international equity team and invests in firms that are carbon light, tobacco-free, alcohol-free, and free of fossil fuels. Councillor David Parker, the pension fund’s chair, said: “The Scottish Borders Council Pension Fund believes that a positive approach to ESG issues can positively affect the financial...

March 14, 2019
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14Mar

Thailand. NGOs call for universal pensions as key to women’s rights and development

As member states and NGOs are gathering at the UN in New York for the 63rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), HelpAge International and its partners are calling for universal social protection for vulnerable older women. Around the world, women are more likely than men to live in poverty throughout their lives, to be disempowered socially and economically, and have their rights denied. Most of the world's older women struggle to survive and feed...

March 14, 2019
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14Mar

Ageing Britons More Likely To Be Impoverished And Unwell, Says Report

Millions more people can expect to live their last years in poverty and hardship, with increasing health challenges, a damning independent report has said. An increasing number of people reaching old age is putting pressure on health services, the Centre for Ageing Better, who ran the report, said. But Dr Anna Dixon from the Centre was keen to assert “our current rates of chronic illness, mental health conditions, disability and frailty could be greatly reduced if we tackled the...

March 14, 2019
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13Mar

Investors Lose a Major Justification for Holding Tobacco Stocks

It wasn’t so long ago that the stellar performance of tobacco stocks such as British American Tobacco Plc and Philip Morris International Inc. was enough justification for asset managers to hold onto their investments, despite a broader push toward socially responsible investing. But in recent years, a flurry of European pension funds and insurers have begun divesting their holdings, putting pressure on the share prices. BAT had its worst year on record last year, slumping 50 percent, as the...

March 13, 2019
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13Mar

Romania’s PM Dancila assures there’s enough money for pensions

Romania’s social security budget will post a surplus of RON 1.7 billion (EUR 360 million) this year, as the Government’s decision of re-organizing the payment of employees’ contributions to the fund has paid dividends, prime minister Viorica Dancila assured in a press conference on March 12, in which she addressed the Presidency’s criticism of the 2019 budget planning. President Klaus Iohannis said in a statement on March 11 that "the social security budget misses some RON 1.4 billion." Dancila...

March 13, 2019
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13Mar

Australia to publish pension fund ratings, pressure underperformers

Australia will begin publishing “heat maps” of the performance of pension funds next year and will pressure those with poor records to exit the industry, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) said on Wednesday. Australian pension funds manage A$1.7 trillion ($1.20 trillion) in savings but lack “maturity” in governance and risk management practices, APRA Deputy Chair Helen Rowell said in a speech published on the regulator’s website. The sector is under pressure to lift standards and improve accountability...

March 13, 2019
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13Mar

This increasing client risk will change advisor practices. Here’s why

When asked what's the biggest impact on their practice, advisors didn't point to artificial intelligence, robos or even climate change. Instead, they're fixated on longevity risk. Clients' ever-increasing lifespans are challenging assumptions about spending rates, savings and more, say advisors, who singled out longevity in a survey released last month by Schwab Advisor Services. In the survey, 29% of participating advisors identified longevity as the leading macro trend that is shaping their firms. Within that group, 44% of advisors...

March 13, 2019
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13Mar

UK. Consumers need simpler retirement products, says outgoing FSCS boss

Pension products should carry a quality mark from the City regulator so customers know they are buying good value, the outgoing chief executive of a savings safety net has suggested. Mark Neale, who has previously announced his intention to step down after spending nine years as chief executive of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), suggested that pension products could be subject to a quality marking scheme by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The FSCS, which is funded by...

March 13, 2019
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12Mar

South Africa. Government ministers lobby to stop PIC amendment bill

The bill is intended to strengthen and bring positive changes to the weakened Public Investment Corporation. There are behind-the-scenes efforts by some government ministers to put a spanner in the works and oppose the passing of the proposed Public Investment Corporation (PIC) Amendment Bill, according to an EWN report. The amendment bill is intended to strengthen and bring positive changes to the weakened PIC, which is responsible for managing assets on behalf of, among other institutions, the Government Employees...

March 12, 2019
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12Mar

US. ‘Dire situation’: Pension costs may close dozens of Kentucky health departments

About $38 million in increased pension costs could shutter health departments serving 42 Kentucky counties next fiscal year. State health leaders are pressing lawmakers for a one-year reprieve to allow time to overhaul a public health system now facing a financial crisis. The higher pension tab could lead local health departments serving an additional 22 counties to run out of reserves and be forced to close the following year, state officials said. That would hit a system...

March 12, 2019
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