January 2019

US. The good and bad of 401(k) rollovers

"If you are moving on from your employer, shouldn't your money move on as well?" asked Peter Lazaroff at The Wall Street Journal. Rolling a 401(k) into an individual retirement account when you leave a job is an "automatic move for many investors," but there are times when it makes more sense to leave your money where it is. The most important thing to consider is expenses. It could be that your current 401(k) plan is cheaper than an...

Asia must navigate pensions crunch

Region unprepared to manage growing financial burdens of retirement. Asian pension systems are facing major challenges. The region is experiencing seismic demographic changes, with rapidly aging populations and declining birthrates. But investment returns are relatively low due to geopolitical uncertainty and minimal interest rates. With the region having relatively few robust retirement systems, many Asian countries will struggle to provide adequate pensions. Governments need to take positive action now to reduce financial pressures and avoid intergenerational conflicts between the young...

UK. Pensions regulator calls on advisers to get behind cold-calling ban

The Pensions Regulator has called on financial advisers to stand behind the cold-calling ban by doing more to report potential scammers. In a blog post this morning, TPR frontline regulation director Nicola Parish calls on IFAs to show clients the FCA’s Scam Smart website to alert them to the warning signs of fraud, particularly when the are considering a pension transfer. Parish writes: “The move by the government to make good on its pledge to make pension cold calling an offence sends...

Indian infrastructure group’s crisis may hit pensions

Pension and provident funds of the Indian salaried class is now in danger as these funds have wide exposure to the troubled IL+FS group The crisis afflicting Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) – an infrastructure conglomerate and group companies – is expected to take a toll on retirement benefits for middle-class citizens.The pension and provident funds for thousands of salaried workers are in danger as they have investments of up to 200 billion rupees in IL&FS.The funds either purchased...

Yale Employees Want Class Status in Retirement Plan Lawsuit

Yale University workers who sued the school over their retirement plan want a federal judge to certify their case as a class action covering more than 14,000 people.The workers say Yale’s retirement plan carried excessive fees and offered poorly performing investment options. Their Jan. 15 motion comes nine months after a federal judge in Connecticut largely denied the school’s attempt to have the case dismissed.At least 20 prominent colleges have been sued over their retirement plans since 2016. Cases against New York...

Every Third Pensioner in Bulgaria is at Risk of Poverty

Every third pensioner in Bulgaria is at risk of poverty. This is the data of the European Statistical Office Eurostat for 2017. By this indicator the country ranks fourth in the European Union. The three Baltic republics are ahead of Bulgaria, reports Dnevnik. A total of 32.4% of retired people in the country, including retired people due to disease, are at risk of poverty. This is the highest rate for the past eight years, the survey found.Estonia is the...

Benefits rule changes could cost pensioners in UK thousands a year

Thousands of poorer UK pensioners who have partners of working age could lose up to £7,000 a year in top-ups as a result of imminent rule changes that will require them to claim universal credit as a couple.Changes slipped out on Monday night by the Department for Work and Pensions mean that from 15 May, new pensioners whose partners are younger than the state retirement age of 65 can no longer claim a means-tested top-up called pension credit.Instead they will be...

Canada: 2019 Brings New Rules For Federally Regulated Employers

In 2018, provincially regulated employers saw significant changes to provincial employment standards legislation such as found in Bill 17 (Alberta), Bill 176 (Quebec). and Bill 148 (Ontario). Not to be outdone, Parliament has introduced a massive piece of omnibus legislation in Bill C-86 (the Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 2) which received royal assent last month. Buried within Bill C-86's changes to tax, customs, banking and pension legislation are significant modifications to the Canada Labour Code and the creation...

How Retirement Changes Your Identity

Teresa Amabile, professor at Harvard Business School, is approaching her own retirement by researching how ending your work career affects your sense of self. She says important psychological shifts take place leading up to, and during, retirement. That holds especially true for workers who identify strongly with their job and organization. Amabile and her fellow researchers have identified two main processes that retirees go through: life restructuring and identity bridging. Health and wealth. Those two things are foremost in...

US. Why The Senior Migration Trend Should Drive Better Discussions Of Longevity

I’m alarmed by the increasing interest in what I’ll call forced senior migration: that is, American seniors who move abroad in order to ensure they can live less expensively, hoping to prolong their retirement nest eggs. Writer Max Holleran Hayes recently captured this phenomenon in a thought-provoking rumination in The New Republic on Gringolandia: Lifestyle Migration Under Late Capitalism, a new book by Matthew Hayes. Essentially, he noted that many current social, political and economic policies are driving a reverse...