May 2018

France. Reshaping pensions: President Macron’s ambitious plans

France has a complex, inequitable pensions system; and a powerful, well dug-in set of unions. The president’s stated goals have put him on a collision course with both: David Whitehouse considers his policy of equal benefits for equal contributions ‘Demography is destiny’ is a powerful idea – and one with substantive repercussions for developed countries facing ageing populations, increased life expectancy and rising incidents of long-term medical conditions, while saddled with pension systems conceived in a different era. It seems the...

Brazil’s Biggest Pension Fund Turns Into a $50 Billion Activist

When BRF SA, the Brazilian food giant that produces everything from chicken to chocolate pies, reported a record annual loss for 2017, it took less than 48 hours for its second-largest shareholder to act. Previ, Brazil’s biggest pension fund, sent a letter in February demanding BRF Chairman Abilio Diniz convene a shareholder meeting to remove the entire board, including himself. After a two-month fight, Previ got its way: Investors voted in five new directors and replaced Diniz with Pedro Parente,...

Pensioners prime market for robo-advice

There is considerable opportunity to provide robo-advice to pensioners seeking affordable, accessible and personalised advice, according to GlobalData. The company’s 2017 Life & UK Pensions Survey found that 63 per cent of individuals accessing financial advice used it to discuss pensions, which usually was through visiting online platforms that provided automated advice. GlobalData pointed to the cheaper fees and ability to engage with services more frequently through robo-advice as key to its appeal to pensioners. Read more @Money Management

America’s back-up retirement plan: Work

America's backup retirement plan is, well, work. More than one in three American workers are using the "gig economy" to find full- or part-time work, and for roughly one-third of that group, the side gig is specifically aimed at increasing their retirement savings, according to a new study by financial advisory firm Betterment. Perhaps not surprisingly, the older the worker, the more likely the side gig is aimed at building that retirement nest egg. Just 42 percent of those under...

Save for our pensions? We millennials can barely find the money to live

I’m yet to see a zombie movie that portrays the most likely way that a post-apocalyptic world will play out: hungry pensioners roaming around; not yet dead, but no pension to keep them fed, looking for an arm to gnaw on. If you think I’m being disrespectful to elderly people, I’m not: that’s my future I’m talking about. Wednesday’s Royal London report, suggesting millennials need to save £260,000 for a pension, is exactly the sort of thing that could...

Hong Kong faces challenge in how to manage its ageing population

According to “Hong Kong Population Projections 2015-2064”, the number of elderly people, those aged 65 or older, in Hong Kong will reach 2.58 million by 2064, around 35.9 per cent of the population. The work force, those aged 15 to 64, will shrink to 3.92 million, or 54.6 per cent of the population). In 2014, the elderly dependency ratio was 198, meaning each elderly person was supported by 2.4 of working age. The ratio is projected to jump to 567...

US. An increasing number of savers are rejecting retirement accounts in favor of these investments

More people are stashing their money in taxable accounts and less so in employer-sponsored retirement plans. Ownership of taxable brokerage accounts jumped 10 percentage points over the last five years, and checking, saving and CD accounts increased 9 percentage points, according to retail investor data firm Hearts & Wallets. Meanwhile, ownership rates remained the same for employer-sponsored plans like a 401(k), but consumers were contributing less — a total decline of 5 percentage points. Accounts with specialties, like Roth retirement plans...

UK. Key findings from the MPs’ report into Carillion’s collapse

A report into the collapse of Carillion by two parliamentary select committees has spread the blame liberally among the directors of the company, its auditors, the regulators and the government. Here are the key findings from the report: Directors The committees found that the directors sought to increase dividends and protect executive bonuses as the company began to unravel, while funding the pension scheme was “treated with contempt”. Their report urged the government’s Insolvency Service, which is still trying to salvage jobs from the wreckage of Carillion, to consider whether directors...

The pensioners retiring overseas because they can’t afford Australia

On a cobbled street in the south of Spain, Norah Ohrt lives like a typical Andalusian in a little white house with red flowers blooming from the windows. It's a world away from what her life would be like if she was still living in Australia. The 71-year-old former gallery owner says that in Perth she'd be living in state housing, surviving "on the smell of an oily rag on the Australian pension". With property prices and cost of living on...

What Returns Do You Give Up for Doing Good?

Environmental, social and governance concerns are playing a bigger role in influencing how investors allocate the money they oversee. That's welcome. But there's a risk of mission creep as funds come under pressure to use their financial clout to change society in ways that should remain the domain of lawmakers. More investors are choosing to put savings into specifically designed ESG funds -- pools, for example, that only take stakes in companies that pledge to reduce their carbon emissions. Assets...