September 2021
17Sep

Canada’s third-largest pension fund beefs ups plan to cut carbon emissions

Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board (OTPP), Canada’s third-largest pension fund, announced on Thursday new interim targets to cut the carbon emissions intensity of its portfolio as part of a plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. OTPP, which manages C$227.7 billion ($180.11 billion) in assets, plans to reduce emissions intensity by 45% by 2025 and 67% by 2030, from 2019 levels. Fellow pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec also has a net-zero target by 2050, but environmental campaigners...

September 17, 2021
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17Sep

Aviva : announces £320m bulk annuity deal with the John Laing Pension Fund

Aviva today announces it has completed a £320m bulk purchase annuity transaction with the John Laing Pension Fund. John Laing is an active investor and manager of infrastructure projects, focused on major transport, social and environmental infrastructure projects and renewable energy projects, across a range of international markets including the UK. This is the second buy-in transaction between Aviva and the John Laing Pension Fund. It follows a £211 million transaction in December 2008. Aviva will insure the defined benefit...

September 17, 2021
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17Sep

Should ESG Funds Be In Retirement Plans?

Investors are pouring record amounts of money into mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that screen holdings based on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors. Read also Study: As a population gets older, automation accelerates Yet, odds are most people won’t find an ESG fund option in their 401(k) retirement-savings plan. Just 2.6% of 401(k) plans had an ESG option in 2019, according to the latest data from the Plan Sponsor Council of America. Read also Canada’s third-largest pension fund beefs ups plan...

September 17, 2021
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15Sep

US. The State Pension Funding Gap: Plans Have Stabilized in Wake of Pandemic

The nation’s state retirement systems finished the 2021 fiscal year in their best condition since the Great Recession of 2007-09. According to projections by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the gap between the cost of pension benefits that states have promised their workers and what they have set aside to pay for them dropped in 2021 to its lowest level in more than a decade. Pew estimates that state retirement systems are now over 80% funded for the first time...

September 15, 2021
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15Sep

Study: As a population gets older, automation accelerates

You might think robots and other forms of workplace automation gain traction due to intrinsic advances in technology — that innovations naturally find their way into the economy. But a study co-authored by an MIT professor tells a different story: Robots are more widely adopted where populations become notably older, filling the gaps in an aging industrial work force. “Demographic change — aging — is one of the most important factors leading to the adoption of robotics and other automation...

September 15, 2021
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15Sep

South Africa. Micro pensions — a viable alternative to the NSSF

By Petri Greeff Whatever the reasons for the release and subsequent withdrawal of the green paper on comprehensive social security & retirement reform, it has sparked important debate, particularly around its call for a mandatory, contributory state pension fund. The many challenges facing the proposed National Social Security Fund (NSSF) have already been outlined by others. Nevertheless, about 6.2-million workers, primarily low-income in both the formal and informal sectors, are not covered by private pension schemes, according to the paper. So...

September 15, 2021
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14Sep

UK. Dashboard will not have accurate DB quotations

The Society of Pension Professionals has warned pension dashboards will have to provide illustrative figures to defined benefit members, as it will not be possible to have accurate quotations due to the complexity of current benefit structures. In a report published today (September 13), the industry body made a series of recommendations to the Department of Work and Pensions and the Pensions Dashboard Programme on how estimated retirement income calculations should be approached from the beginning of the project's rollout. Since...

September 14, 2021
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14Sep

US. House Democrats propose new retirement plan rules for the rich, including contribution limits and a repeal of Roth conversions

House Democrats proposed a slew of changes to retirement accounts for the rich on Monday, part of a restructuring of the tax code tied to a $3.5 trillion budget plan. Taken together, Democrats’ reforms aim to erode the use of retirement accounts as a perceived tax shelter for the wealthy and instead promote them as a way for low- and middle-income Americans to build a nest egg. Most of the changes would start in 2022. Wealthy individuals with retirement accounts exceeding $10...

September 14, 2021
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14Sep

German chancellor candidates clash over future of pension system

Chancellor candidates have argued over the future of the German pension system, offering opposite views to the public in the second televised debate which took place yesterday, as the general election on 26 September approaches. Olaf Scholz, chancellor candidate for the Social Democratic Party (SPD), now leading in the polls, said his party would “guarantee that the retirement age will not increase and that the level of pension remains stable,” also with an eye to the younger generation. Read also Germany....

September 14, 2021
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14Sep

Australia. Most vulnerable excluded from Disability Support Pension

The number of people locked out of disability support and forced on to inadequate JobSeeker Payments has more than tripled since 2007 as a direct result of ever-tightening eligibility rules, a new report has found. The Dead Ends report, by the Brotherhood of St. Laurence (BSL), Associate Professor Karen Soldatic, Western Sydney University; and Australian Federation of Disability Organisations, found an increasing number of people living with disability, psycho-social impairments and/or chronic illnesses are being assessed as having a “partial...

September 14, 2021
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