October 2018

09Oct

US. This Chart Shows How Much Health Care Will Cost in Retirement – at Every Age

Here’s some good news about medical expenses in retirement: health care inflation has slowed over the past year, lowering your projected lifetime tab, according to a new report. And here’s the bad news: even at this lower growth rate, health care expenses are a runaway train that can plow a hole into the most carefully constructed budget. Retirement health care expenses are projected to rise at an average annual rate of 4.2%, versus an estimated 5.5% last year, according to...

October 9, 2018
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08Oct

‘Time to act’ on EU reform for pensions

The pensions industry has warned the government that it is running out of time to implement sweeping EU reforms governing how schemes are run and the information provided to members. Draft legislation for the EU’s Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision Directive has yet to be published, even though the new rules are supposed to take effect on January 13. “The failure to publish the implementing legislation is quite simply unacceptable,” said Peter Fahy in his chairman’s address to the Irish Association...

October 8, 2018
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08Oct

UK. Many workers mistrust pensions industry, survey finds

Many people still mistrust the pensions industry, according to a report which found a strong appetite among workers for their money to be saved with ethics in mind. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of people think it is important their pension scheme considers the environment, society and corporate behaviour when investing their money, a survey of members of workplace pension scheme Nest found. But general levels of trust in pensions are low and seem unchanging, according to its report. Nest also carried out a...

October 8, 2018
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08Oct

Kenya. Pension burden as State to spend Sh104bn on retirees in two years

Kenya will spend Sh104 billion in the next two years to pay retired civil servants, raising the red flag on the government’s ability to support its retiring workers. The dilemma, however, remains how much State workers should set aside for their sunset days in an environment of increasing cost of living thanks to the tax burden. And the increasing number of pensioners and government’s struggles to support them in their old age is a major cause for concern, according to Enwealth...

October 8, 2018
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08Oct

UK. Legal & General strikes 2.4 billion pounds pension de-risking deal

Legal & General (LGEN.L) said on Monday it had agreed a deal to insure 2.4 billion pounds in pension risk with the Nortel Networks UK Pension Plan, adding its deal pipeline was at a record high. L&G is at the forefront of demand from some insurers to take on pension-related risk from companies, so-called ‘bulk annuities’, and said at the half-year stage that it expected sales to drive earnings into the end of the year. The deal with Nortel allows the...

October 8, 2018
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05Oct

Putin’s Russian Retirement Age Hike And U.S. Social Security

Op-Ed by Elizabeth Bauer In the news yesterday:  despite public protests on the matter, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a pension reform bill which increases the retirement age, formerly age 55 for women and 60 for men, to age 60 and 65, respectively. (See Radio Free Europe for coverage.) From an American point of view, one might be surprised that the retirement age was ever this low in the first place, or that retirement ages were and still remain different for men...

October 5, 2018
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05Oct

UK. Pension fund manager accused of stealing £1m to buy house

A pension fund manager at one of the richest authorities in the UK stole almost £1m from a council employee retirement pot to buy a new house and car, a court has heard today (4 October). Ian Woodall, 47, tricked colleagues into signing off payments from the £1bn pension fund by disguising them as investments, jurors heard. Woodall allegedly siphoned off £924,841 from Westminster City Council, between 2009 and 2012, while employed as the pension fund manager. He is said to have...

October 5, 2018
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05Oct

Bulgarian Finance Minister: From July 2019, Cap on all Pensions will Increase to BGN 1,200

As of July 1, 2019, the upper limit on all pensions, regardless of when they were granted, will be increased to BGN 1,200, but the cap will not be removed, Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov said after a meeting with trade unions, Focus News Agency reports. "The changes in the pension formula and all its imperfections do not give us a reason to decide in favour of eliminating the ceiling. There are distortions accumulated over the years in the pension formula,...

October 5, 2018
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04Oct

Kazakhstan: Pension plans darken a grim picture

The government appears eager to shed an onerous and unrewarding responsibility: managing its citizens’ pensions. Authorities in Kazakhstan are set once again to tinker with how pension funds are managed. And if social media and news website comment boards are any indication, people are livid. Since 2013, pension contributions have been held in an entity called the Single Accumulated Savings Fund, or ENPF in its Russian initials. The fund comprises 10 million accounts worth a total of 9 trillion tenge ($25...

October 4, 2018
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04Oct

Financial health of Canadian defined-benefit pension plans hits all-time quarterly high in Q3 2018

Rising bond yields and a continuing strong U.S. equity market helped boost the health of Canadian defined benefit pension plans to the highest level ever recorded, according to the latest quarterly Median Solvency Ratio from Aon, a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions. Quotes: “Aon has been measuring median solvency for the better part of two decades now, and we have never seen quarterly levels this high,” said William da Silva, Senior...

October 4, 2018
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