March 2018

28Mar

Canada pension fund to expand presence

Canada's pension fund could increase its investment in China to C$150 billion ($116 billion) by 2030, underscoring the fund's confidence in the long-term development of the country, said Mark Machin, chief executive of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. "We have a significant stake in China's continued success," Machin told China Daily at the annual China Development Forum, which ended in Beijing on Monday. "We believe over the long-term, China is well positioned to continue to be one of the leading...

March 28, 2018
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28Mar

US. Prudential develops innovative process with PIC to help small pensions de-risk

A collaborative effort between Prudential Retirement, a unit of Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE:PRU), and Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) has created an innovative new approach for expediting longevity reinsurance transactions for smaller pension buy-ins and buy-outs. This new approach combines an advance commitment of capital, known pricing and the bundling of multiple transactions into a single closing to enable PIC to more nimbly and efficiently address the risk transfer needs of small pensions and their retirees. Launched, tested and proven effective...

March 28, 2018
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28Mar

UK watchdog considers ban on some pension transfer charges

Britain’s markets watchdog is considering banning certain types of charges for pension transfers and is proposing that advisers gain investment qualifications, it said on Monday, following concern that policyholders are being given bad advice. Following a change in rules three years ago, British pension holders can give up their pension pots at age 55 or above for a lump sum or another investment. However, the Financial Conduct Authority has come under fire for slowness in preventing “vulture” advisers from persuading steelworkers...

March 28, 2018
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27Mar

Aadhaar: Is India’s biometric ID scheme hurting the poor?

For six to seven days every month, says Muniya Devi, her five-member family doesn't get food to eat. The frail 31-year-old lives with her children in an arid village in Jharkhand, one of India's poorest states. Her husband, Bushan, works in a brick kiln some 65km (40 miles) away, earning 130 rupees ($1.90; £1.40) a day. For the last three years, they have been deprived of subsidised food from India's vast public distribution system, a lifeline for the poor. That is...

March 27, 2018
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27Mar

Australia. Labor to exclude all pensioners from $59 billion dividends policy

Labor has buckled to pressure in the political row over its $59 billion revenue grab on dividend payments, staging a sudden retreat to exempt all Australians on the age pension from a policy it unveiled just two weeks ago. Bill Shorten will vow to exclude 306,000 pensioners from his original plan in a bid to calm the storm over the impact on retirees who stand to lose tax refunds worth thousands of dollars a year. The dramatic backdown comes after sharp...

March 27, 2018
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27Mar

Pension pains: The 5 hurdles facing LatAm AFPs

Not all Latin America's pension woes can be blamed on the AFP system, but there are key issues that are at the heart of the attacks from the public and politicians. US think tank Brookings Institute examined the big challenges facing pensions in the region on the 25th anniversary of the sweeping reforms that led to the birth of AFPs, a system first created in Chile in the 1980s. The report highlighted the unsustainability of defined benefit public pensions, as shown...

March 27, 2018
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26Mar

US. Revamped hybrid retirement plan proposed for rank-and-file state workers

Revamping the pension plans for future rank-and-file state workers will better serve the needs of younger employees and lower the state’s debt risk, according to officials with the Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System. The Senate Retirement Committee, chaired by Sen. Barrow Peacock, R-Bossier City, is expected to consider Senate Bill 14 on Monday. The legislation, authored by Peacock, is a hybrid retirement plan that would apply to rank-and-file state employees hired on or after Jan. 1, 2020. The monthly pension...

March 26, 2018
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26Mar

US. Battered by Great Recession, underfunded public pensions to persist

Ten years on from the financial crisis, many U.S. state and local public pension systems are still the worse for wear. Investment returns have been uneven and funding levels have yet to recover. Many pension funds have meanwhile attempted to boost returns by loading up on alternative investments to levels unheard of a decade earlier. “Some just cannot grow their way out of it. We have had several years of stellar (stock market) returns and it barely improved the underfunding situation,”...

March 26, 2018
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26Mar

UK pensions gender gap widens in past decade, figures show

The gender gap in UK retirement incomes has widened dramatically over the last decade, with the average single woman now £85 a week behind her male counterpart, according to new data. The findings come as companies and organisations continue to report the difference between what they pay male and female staff ahead of the 4 April deadline set by the government, and suggest that gender pay inequalities do not stop after people retire. Steve Webb, the former Lib Dem pensions minister,...

March 26, 2018
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23Mar

Australia. Pension pay rise kicks in but deeming rates disappoint retirees

PENSIONERS have received a pay rise this month, pushing their fortnightly rate above $900 for the first time. However, deeming rates are again unmoved, annoying hundreds of thousands of retirees who Centrelink judges to be earning more income than they actually are. Deeming — the threshold used by the pension income test when measuring financial assets such as cash or shares — is still at 1.75 per cent for the first $52,000 of a single pensioner’s assets and 3.25 per cent...

March 23, 2018
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