Slider Archives - Page 370 of 454 - Pension Policy International

18JulJuly 18, 2018

Greece Sees Highest Pension Spend in EU

Greece spends the highest percentage of its GDP on pensions compared to other European Union member states, Eurostat says. Despite the fact that pensions have been slashed dramatically during the economic crisis, the Greek state continues to give a large part of its GDP to pensioners, the highest percentage than any other EU nation. According to the European statistical authority, pension expenditure in 2015 amounted to 17.8 percent of GDP, the highest in the EU. The percentage of GDP does not...

July 18, 2018

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18JulJuly 18, 2018

US. Public Pensions Adopt Cost Sharing Mechanisms to Stem Volatility

In spring 2016, Sandy Matheson, the executive director of the Maine Public Employees Retirement System, was panicking. After earning 2 percent the previous fiscal year, record low bond yields and global stock market turmoil were dragging the pension’s returns even lower -- and further away from its 6.9 percent assumed annual return. She modeled government pension payments under a scenario where investments returned 4 percent a year for four years and then 6.9 percent thereafter. The result: government contributions would increase...

July 18, 2018

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18JulJuly 18, 2018

UK. CMA proposes pension investment reforms

Investment consultants advise pension trustees, who oversee companies’ pension schemes, on how to invest their funds. Some pension schemes delegate investment decisions to fiduciary managers. These firms have influence over half of all UK households’ retirement savings and work with pension scheme assets worth at least £1.6 trillion. Good investment management helps ensure people receive the pension they expect upon retirement. In September last year the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched a market investigation into this sector, at the...

July 18, 2018

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17JulJuly 17, 2018

US. How Hidden Costs Can Dent Your Retirement Income

For millions of retirees, hidden costs creep up on them. Just when they thought they were covered by Medicare and Social Security, they get clobbered. While Medicare does pay for the bulk of hospital-related expenses after age 65, there can be thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket healthcare expenses. You have to plan for them. According to a report by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, retirees, on average, face $4,300 in annual out-of-pocket healthcare expenses. Those bills can eat...

July 17, 2018

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17JulJuly 17, 2018

Nigeria. Anchor Pensions Asset Base Exceeds N80bn

With the nation’s pension fund growing day-by-day, the pension Assets Under Management of IEI-Anchor Pension Managers Limited has now exceeded N80 billion. Managing director/CEO, IEI-Anchor Pensions, Mr. Glory Etaduovie, who stated this during a media parley at company’s head office in Abuja, last week, said, the company has made tremendous progress to penetrate pension industry in the last three years, stating that its excellent and friendly customer service delivery has persuaded both individuals and companies to trust in the capacity...

July 17, 2018

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17JulJuly 17, 2018

One of the biggest — and often costliest — retirement mistakes investors are making today

Target-date funds are all the rage among retirement investors, making it easy to spread money among stocks and bonds and to rebalance as conditions change. Total assets in this sector topped $1.1 trillion at the end of 2017, up from $158 billion at the end of 2008, according to Morningstar. But is this too much of a good thing? Vanguard Group, the fund giant, reported recently that 51 percent of investors in 401(k) plans with the firm put all their money...

July 17, 2018

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16JulJuly 16, 2018

Ireland. USC billions for pensions abyss

The Government's long- promised plan to merge USC and PRSI could be used to offset the growing risk posed to the country's financial stability by the pension time-bomb, the Sunday Independent can reveal. Senior Government sources believe a significant amount of the €4bn raised annually from USC could be combined with PRSI to fill the black hole in the country's pension fund. Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty is understood to be eager to dramatically increase the amount of funding her...

July 16, 2018

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16JulJuly 16, 2018

UK. MPs call for collective defined contribution pensions

MPs have encouraged the government to seek innovation and the “great potential gains” of collective defined contribution pension schemes, a report published this morning by the work and pensions committee says. The committee says the schemes, which are already highly successful in Denmark and the Netherlands, offer advantages of a middle ground between defined benefit and defined contribution pension schemes. CDC pensions – which are not yet available in the UK – offer regular retirement income but in the form of...

July 16, 2018

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16JulJuly 16, 2018

US. Retirees rally for pensions as committee considers Sen. Brown’s bill to bolster pension program

From Utah to Alabama and points in between, retirees rallied at the Ohio Statehouse to demand actions to save their pensions last week. The pensions of more than 60,000 Ohioans and more than 1 million Americans are at risk, making times difficult for retired steelworkers, coal miners, tobacco workers, teamsters and more. The pension funds are slowly collapsing as they have been since the Wall Street crisis of 2008. Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown says he has a plan to save the...

July 16, 2018

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13JulJuly 13, 2018

Japan pension funds raise alternatives exposure to record high in 2017 survey finds

Japanese pension funds raised their allocation to alternative investments to a record 17.1% of total assets last year in a bid to boost returns, according to findings from a survey by JP Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM). At the same time, their allocation to Japanese government bonds (JGBs) declined to an all-time low as the central bank’s prolonged negative interest rate took a toll on return targets. JPMAM polled 123 Japanese defined-benefit pension funds and mutual aid pension funds between March...

July 13, 2018

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July 2018