August 2021
25Aug

There’s $35 Trillion Invested in Sustainability, but $25 Trillion of That Isn’t Doing Much

Sustainable investment assets grew to $35.3 trillion globally last year amid mounting concerns about societal inequities and climate change. That’s about $1 of every $3 managed globally seeking out a profit from environmental, social and governance concerns, according to Global Sustainable Investment Alliance’s report last month. It’s an impressive number. But the bulk of that money—some $25 trillion—is in a strategy called “ESG integration,” also known as “ESG consideration.” In theory, this means that managers are including ESG data in...

August 25, 2021
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25Aug

How Blockchain Can Transform Retirement Planning

Retirement planning deals with massive amounts of data clusters across multiple processes. Keeping participants’ assets safe is one of the major responsibilities of plan providers to ensure customer trust. Read also Canada. Union Files Legal Challenge Over OMERS’ Early Retirement Policy Defined contribution (DC) plans such as the National Pension Scheme in India and 401(k) in the US have become mainstream, but there is no designated registry to track all the retirement plan accounts and their status on one platform. The...

August 25, 2021
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25Aug

Ireland. Pensions gap widens as pandemic deepens the divide

Psychologists say we have very little appreciation or concept of ourselves in the future. In other words, our future selves are strangers to each of us. This lack of relationship with our older selves partly explains why we are so bad at planning for the longer term, such as saving towards retirement. According to research published in recent weeks by Standard Life, just under half of people of working age here have an occupational pension here. That's down from just over half at...

August 25, 2021
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25Aug

Why The Decline In Life Expectancy Shouldn’t Affect Your Retirement Plans

By Bob Carlson Average life expectancy in the U.S. declined by 1.5 years in 2020, according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is believed to be the largest one-year decline in life expectancy since at least World War II. Life expectancy was 77.3 years in 2020, about the same level as in 2003. Life expectancy should be a major factor in retirement planning. I often recommend that one of the first steps in developing a...

August 25, 2021
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24Aug

US. Companies Find It’s a Good Time to Push Pension Obligations Off Balance Sheets

Finance chiefs are stepping up their efforts to move pension obligations off company balance sheets through annuity purchases and other financial tools, taking advantage of well-funded plans and a respite from the scramble over the past year to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. For years, sponsors of single-employer pension plans have purchased annuities from an insurer for all or some of their employees with vested benefits, thus shrinking a plan’s assets and liabilities and simultaneously strengthening a company’s balance sheet....

August 24, 2021
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24Aug

Nepalese Gurkhas end hunger strike over UK military pensions

Nepalese Gurkha military veterans have ended a 13-day hunger strike after the United Kingdom’s government agreed to discuss their longstanding grievances over pension rights. Thousands of Gurkhas, who are renowned as hard and loyal fighters, have served in the British army but until 2007, did not enjoy the same pay and conditions as British soldiers. Those who served before 1997 still receive only a fraction of their British counterparts’ salary as it was assumed they would return to Nepal after leaving...

August 24, 2021
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24Aug

New Zealand. Super-sharers: How small contributions can push back against inequality

Creating a truly fair New Zealand will require transformational change. Until we get there, one charity is encouraging superannuitants to give whatever they can. New Zealand’s generational divide is well-documented. Over-65s, who benefitted from free education and affordable housing, now receive pensions that are not income or asset-tested. Younger generations rack up debt to gain tertiary education and face unaffordable housing prices, and those in need receive insufficient income and accommodation support. For much of the older generation, the NZ Super...

August 24, 2021
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24Aug

US. Despite the pandemic, 401(k) balances and savings rates are higher than ever

Even with climbing Covid-19 case numbers and ever-increasing inflation, employed retirement savers have been socking away record amounts of cash in their retirement investment accounts. Average 401(k) account balances and savings rates reached record highs in the second quarter of 2021, according to Fidelity Investments, the nation’s largest provider of 401(k) plans, marking three quarters of upward growth in a row. Another positive sign for savers’ finances: The number of outstanding 401(k) loans also decreased. At the start of the coronavirus pandemic,...

August 24, 2021
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23Aug

Royal Mail ready to launch first U.K. collective DC plan

The Royal Mail Group Ltd. is getting closer to the launch of its long-awaited collective defined contribution plan, which will be U.K.'s first such plan, as the government unveiled a final set of CDC requirements on July 19. Read also UK. Do CDCs offer the best of both? Sponsors of defined benefit funds in the U.K. such as Royal Mail, which have been grappling with the increasing costs of running a pension fund will soon be able to switch to a...

August 23, 2021
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23Aug

US. Why Is Gen Z Saving More for Retirement Than Their Parents?

By Ben Geier, CEPF A 2021 survey from TransAmerica says that the youngest generation of American adults is getting a jumpstart on retirement by saving a lot earlier than older generations. Financial experts will point out that this is in part due to the decline of pensions and the rise of defined contribution plans like 401(k)s, which allow employees to invest part of their paycheck into a tax-advantaged retirement account. In fact, Gen Z could be the first generation to...

August 23, 2021
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