January 2018

31Jan

On a better savings course: US retirement score rises

Americans' retirement savings are in the best shape they've been in more than a decade. So says a survey by Fidelity Investments, which looked at more than 3,000 working households that have started saving for retirement. After tallying up how much they're saving in their 401(k) accounts, their expected Social Security benefits and other assets, Fidelity said that the typical saver is on track to have 80 percent of the income they'll need to cover retirement costs. That's the highest score...

January 31, 2018
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31Jan

Romania’s new PM promises to increase wages and pensions

Romania must continue to increase wages, the new prime minister Viorica Dancila said on Monday as she addressed the Parliament before her cabinet got the confidence vote. She added that the minimum net wage will reach over EUR 300 per month in 2020. “I want Romanians to have salaries as close as possible to those in the European Union. The salary increases in the past year have reduced the number of doctors who leave the country by 70%. This is the way to...

January 31, 2018
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31Jan

German parties agree on climate as coalition talks progress

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives agreed with their would-be Social Democrat (SPD) partners on Wednesday on climate targets for 2030, a sign of steady progress in coalition talks which both sides aim to conclude within a week.  Merkel, weakened after losing votes to the far-right in a September election, is pinning her hopes for a fourth term on a re-run of the ‘grand coalition’ with the SPD to end four months of political limbo in Europe’s biggest economy. Read more Reuters

January 31, 2018
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31Jan

Fintech’s Answer To The Global Retirement Crisis

Fintech innovators have the multi-trillion-dollar global retirement income market in their sights.  An exciting example is the advent of blockchain-secured tontines as an alternative to traditional pensions and annuities. What in the World is a Tontine? A tontine is an investment pool managed in an actuarially fair way, according to a plan for distributing fully-funded payouts to investors.  There are two key differences between a tontine and an ordinary investment. First, tontines investments are generally irrevocable.  Second, account balances are not transferred to a...

January 31, 2018
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31Jan

UK. Carillion pension scheme was ‘ignored’

For 10 years, the Carillion pension trustees tried to get the company to pay in more money to the scheme without success. There was no agreement from 2008 onwards between the company and the trustees about the correct level of contribution over that decade and according to Robin Ellison, the chair of the trustees, there was precious little the guardians of the pension could do about it.   Read more BBC

January 31, 2018
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30Jan

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Extends Cooperation with Longfor Properties to Develop Mixed-Use Sites in Chengdu and Shanghai, China

 Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and Longfor Properties Co. Ltd (Longfor) announced today they are extending their cooperation to include two new mixed-use real estate development projects in Chengdu and Shanghai in China, for a total CPPIB commitment of approximately RMB 4,200 million (C$800 million). “We are pleased to extend our existing relationship with Longfor Properties, one of the top real estate developers in China, through these development projects in Chengdu and Shanghai. Both cities are well positioned to...

January 30, 2018
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30Jan

U.S. pensions seen adding bonds, paring stocks – Wells Fargo

U.S. pensions are expected to shift more money into bonds and out of equities to rebalance their holdings at month-end in the wake of strong gains in the stock market in January, Wells Fargo strategists said on Monday. Retirement plans may need to add $16 billion in fixed income and to reduce up to $20 billion in equities for their month-end asset-allocation rebalancing, they wrote in a research note. Read More: Reuters

January 30, 2018
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30Jan

SEC looking into MetLife’s failure to pay some pensions

MetLife Inc said on Monday the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was looking into the insurer’s failure to pay some workers’ pensions. MetLife, in a statement, said the SEC’s enforcement staff has inquired about payments that the insurer failed to make for people who receive a type of annuity benefit from the company via its retirement business. Less than 5 percent of 600,000 people are affected, the company has said. The New York insurer estimated increasing total reserves by between $525...

January 30, 2018
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29Jan

US. The rationality (or otherwise) of public pension fund managers

A new research paper from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business discusses the rationality (or otherwise) of the return expectations of institutional investors, with especial reference to public pension funds. It finds that the returns that pension fund managers expect from their investments are extrapolated from the returns those investments have made in the past. That is a normal human tendency, to presuppose inertia, but it is not ideally rational. The report is co-authored by Aleksandar Andonov, of Erasmus University,...

January 29, 2018
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29Jan

UK. Carillion ‘fell short on pensions for a decade’

Bosses at Carillion are set for a heated showdown with MPs after the Commons work and pensions committee accused the failed outsourcer of attempting to “wriggle out” of its pension obligations for the past decade. The committee released details of the way the company’s pension deficit and its cash problems were handled over several years. This week MPs will be questioning former Carillion executives and regulators as part of a joint inquiry into the company’s collapse with the business, energy...

January 29, 2018
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