March 2019

06Mar

UK. End to unnecessary benefit reassessments for disabled pensioners

Hundreds of thousands of disabled pensioners will no longer have to go through unnecessary reassessments for disability benefits, Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd has said today (5 March 2019). Around 270,000 people receiving Personal Independence Payment (PIP) who have reached State Pension age will no longer have their awards regularly reviewed, instead moving to a light touch review every 10 years. The changes are part of a wider package of measures announced by Amber Rudd, signalling a shift...

March 6, 2019
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06Mar

Pension-Fund Giant Warns Policy Mistake Risk Is Now Elevated

MLC Ltd., one of Australia’s largest pension funds, is pinning its hopes on private-equity investments to lift returns amid an outlook for increasingly volatile markets and an elevated risk of policy errors as the global economic cycle ages. There is now a higher risk of policy mistakes coming from governments or central banks and the sustainability of corporate profit margins near all-time highs is under threat, according to Jonathan Armitage, the firm’s chief investment officer in Sydney, where he...

March 6, 2019
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06Mar

UK. Pensions watchdog tells weak companies to stop handing cash to investors

Weak companies have been told they must stop dishing out fat payouts to shareholders if they are struggling to fill a hole in their pension scheme. The Pensions Regulator (TPR), which has a responsibility to safeguard pensions, said that if an employer is “weak and unable to support the scheme” then it expects the “payment of shareholder distributions to have ceased”. The disparity between shareholder dividends and pension contributions has been a major area of focus since the high-profile...

March 6, 2019
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05Mar

Warren Buffet Tells Pensions and Endowments to Cut Management Fees

Warren Buffett has a word of advice for pension funds and endowments: cut out those high-fee “helpers,” namely consultants, outside managers, and others he deems a drag on returns. In Berkshire Hathaway’s latest annual letter, Buffett describes US growth over the last 77 years. Why 77 years? That refers to when he bought his first stock: three shares of Cities Service for $114.75. And he did a little math regarding public pension funds and college endowments. “If my $114.75...

March 5, 2019
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05Mar

Europeanising pensions and unemployment insurance

A European mechanism for pensions and unemployment insurance would protect vulnerable economies against asymmetric shocks and give life to the European Pillar of Social Rights. The debate about the future of the social dimension in Europe offers an opportunity to ground new policy directions and research. The European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) sets out, in its chapter III, the principles of social protection and inclusion, in which unemployment benefits and old-age income and pensions figure. Equality, fairness and...

March 5, 2019
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05Mar

How Merrill Lynch Is Planning for Its Customers to Live to 100

The world is getting older. Children born in the developed world today can anticipate living to 100 and beyond, and those of us arriving at old age in good health stand a very good chance of living into our 90s. These shifts will change the workplace environment, and also offer companies new economic opportunities. The impact of what’s known as the “longevity economy” — defined as the purchasing power of those 55 and older — is over $7.6 trillion...

March 5, 2019
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05Mar

India. Serving, retired staff of government insurers to benefit from pension scheme

Retired and serving employees of government-owned insurance companies are happy at the Centre's decision to offer another chance to opt for pension scheme. "I am happy with the development. With the interest rates on bank deposits sliding down, getting a steady pension income is good. I am going to opt for pension," said Y. Sivam, a retired employee of National Insurance Company Ltd. A serving employee in the same company said: "Earlier I didn't opt for the pension...

March 5, 2019
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05Mar

Phoenix Group sees more UK Plc pension insurance deals as Brexit nears

Phoenix Group, Europe’s largest owner of life assurance funds closed to new customers, expects Britain’s approaching departure from the European Union to push more UK companies to offload risks linked to their pension schemes in 2019. The company also reported higher full-year profit and targeted cash generation of 3.8 billion pounds ($5.01 billion)from 2019 to 2023, more than the 2.5 billion pounds it earlier expected to earn between 2018 and 2022. Phoenix, poised to enter London’s blue-chip index, also...

March 5, 2019
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05Mar

Kenya’s pension firm enters Uganda’s market

A new pension administrator, Enwealth Financial Services, has entered Uganda’s pension market upon securing an operation license from the regulator, Uganda Retirement Benefits Regulatory Authority (URBRA). The firm that joins nine other pension administrators in the country plans to offer pension retirement services, training and consultancy services. Founded in 2011 in Kenya, it currently manages pension assets worth over Shs2trillion for 120 clients in 12 countries within Africa. Nelson Kuria, the company’s chairman Board of Directors said at the...

March 5, 2019
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04Mar

How sustainable income levels can protect portfolio strength

Taking a sustainable level of income is important in helping drawdown customers maintain a resilient portfolio during periods of investment volatility. Customers in income drawdown should think about the impact of volatility on their pension. While someone building up a pension can mitigate the effect of market falls by continuing to make contributions to their pension, those in income drawdown are not only not making contributions, they are actively drawing down their fund so it has less chance to...

March 4, 2019
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