March 2022

US. G.O.P. Senate Hopeful Faces Scrutiny Over Handling of Teacher Pensions
17Mar

US. G.O.P. Senate Hopeful Faces Scrutiny Over Handling of Teacher Pensions

Before he entered Pennsylvania’s Senate race, David McCormick oversaw a giant hedge fund that invested billions of dollars for the retirement plans of the state’s teachers. But Mr. McCormick’s company, Bridgewater Associates, delivered such middling profits and charged such high fees that the Pennsylvania teachers’ retirement fund moved to sell off its Bridgewater holdings beginning two years ago. Overall, Bridgewater’s performance was a contributing factor in nearly a decade of poor returns for the retirement fund, trustees of the fund said...

March 17, 2022
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16Mar

US. The Smart Way for Public Pensions to Divest from Russia

With Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine demanding a response from freedom-loving peoples everywhere, the NATO nations and other countries around the world have embarked on a wide range of economic sanctions. Some of them are far more extensive than anybody had previously imagined possible, such as the freezing of Russian central bank assets and its global interbank access, and now the U.S. oil boycott. Amid this global expression of scorn, American state and local politicians are jumping on the...

March 16, 2022
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16Mar

UK. What impact could the Russian invasion of Ukraine have on pensions?

The terrible atrocities in Ukraine have had major consequences on the world from creating a large-scale humanitarian crisis to unnerving global stock markets. But platform Interactive Investor (II) said that the latter has “implications for the value of pension pots and by extension, retirement plans”. Read also China markets in turmoil as Russia ties add to list of risks Initially, the concern among pension savers was that they did not want to be invested in Russian companies. A number of pension providers...

March 16, 2022
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16Mar

Ghana. Peoples Pension Trust partners SCBF to introduces new Pension Scheme to support women

Peoples Pension Trust (PPT) has partnered the Swiss Capacity Building Facility (SCBF) to introduce new a pension scheme. The new programme; Scaling Gender-Focused Financial Resilience (SGFR) was launched to commemorate this year’s International Women’s Day. Read also Does Informal Sector Size Impede Economy Growth in Developing Countries? SGFR will support informal, marginalized, and excluded female workers and entrepreneurs to secure their future through micro-pensions. Globally 1.8 billion people are working in the informal sector, and in Ghana, this represents approximately 80% of the...

March 16, 2022
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UK pension schemes have little direct exposure to Russia, regulator says
15Mar

UK pension schemes have little direct exposure to Russia, regulator says

British pension schemes have very little investment in Russian securities, The Pensions Regulator's policy director said on Monday, though he added there were practical difficulties in selling them. Moscow's invasion of Ukraine has led to many firms rushing to offload Russian assets, though Western sanctions and counter-measures by Russia have made it hard to do so. "Russian stocks do make up a very small proportion of some global indices," David Fairs, The Pensions Regulator's executive director of regulatory policy, analysis and...

March 15, 2022
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Incorporating ESG into retirement strategies
15Mar

Incorporating ESG into retirement strategies

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) has come to the forefront of policymaking within the financial services sector throughout the last the decade. Indeed, many industry leaders are keen to introduce ESG into their operations. A mixture of changing laws, regulatory rules, and growing demand from investors has influenced this push in collective conscientiousness that only took hold in the mid-2000s. In 2004 then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan wrote to 50 CEOs within major financial institutions, inviting them to join an initiative...

March 15, 2022
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15Mar

US. The ABCs of Group Retirement Plans

The foundational concept of a group retirement solution—the multiple employer plan—has deep roots. Dating back to the early 20th century and formalized by the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, multiple employer plans (MEPS) began as vehicles to make agreements between management and labor unions possible across numerous employers in the same industry. While the multiple employer solutions we know today may look different, their underlying benefits have endured the test of time. In fact, their structure becomes even more relevant every...

March 15, 2022
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15Mar

‘Wisdom and respect’: what Peru’s forgotten generation can teach us about life and ageing

Enedina Avilés sits on a rocky ledge surveying the city below. She comes to this spot every evening after spending the day earning a living peeling garlic cloves. “This is her moment of meditation,” says Peruvian photographer Alex Kornhuber. Avilés’s home, a wooden shack with no running water or electricity, is perched on a hillside on the southern outskirts of Lima. She lived in the mountains for most of her life but moved to the city seven years ago after...

March 15, 2022
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15Mar

UK. Pension funds will increase impact investing, research finds

Pension funds are predicted to increasingly invest with impact, according to a survey by the Impact Investing Institute and EY, the professional services firm. The UK impact investing market had an estimated £58bn in assets under management at the end of 2020. Only 1 per cent of this figure was attributed to pension fund managers. But pension funds, asset managers and family offices were seen as the primary drivers of future growth given the scale of capital they control, a survey...

March 15, 2022
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14Mar

US. A Guide To The State Pension Funds Divesting From Russia

As economic sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine spread, state and local public pension plans are looking at selling off their Russian-related assets and some are already doing so. Lawmakers in at least a dozen states are pressuring their pension funds to divest from Russian-related investments. Divestment isn’t likely to have much impact on the funds themselves as Russian-domiciled investments make up less than 1% of most (if not all) state portfolios. But collectively, it sends a message....

March 14, 2022
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