June 2021

US. Pension Worries Ease for States, Localities on Stimulus, Stocks

Public pensions performed better than anticipated during the pandemic, easing the financial strain on state and local governments sponsoring the plans, thanks in part to U.S. aid and stock market gains. The massive federal stimulus has helped head off the dire revenue picture that many governments were facing early in the pandemic. At the same time, record stock market gains and past changes to public pension operations helped drive funded levels higher and push pension management down the list of...

A preservation ‘revival’ will supercharge South Africa’s retirement outcomes

South Africa's retirement outcomes will improve radically if all retirement funding contributions are kept invested when fund members change jobs. Other quick wins include increasing the minimum government pension; delaying the government retirement age beyond 60 years; and refocusing the industry from saving a lump sum at retirement to providing a sustainable income in retirement. These observations were made by Dr David Knox, the lead author of the Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index (GPI), during a keynote address to...

UK. TPR secures £730m insolvency protection for Sanofi Pension Scheme

Sanofi’s defined benefit (DB) pension scheme has additional insolvency protection of up to £730m for 20 years, following intervention from The Pensions Regulator (TPR). The regulator worked with the global healthcare company to secure the increased financial support for the scheme, which also includes deficit repair contributions and an upfront payment of £37m, after warning that it would take enforcement action if necessary. TPR added that the scheme, which has 16,500 members, now also benefits from a legally binding agreement which...

US. Maine forces pension funds to dump fossil fuels

Last week, Maine passed bill LD99; an act to require the state to divest itself of assets invested in the fossil fuel industry. Needing 17 votes to pass, it succeeded with 18 in favour while 15 voted against the bill and two were excused. Under the law, the Maine Public Employees Retirement System "may not invest the assets of any state pension or annuity fund in any stocks or other securities of any corporation or company within the fossil fuel...

APAC pensions industry and recent trends in Japan

Pension assets across the largest pensions’ markets increased 11% in 2020, according to the Global Pensions Assets Study 2021 by Willis Towers Watson. Asia Pacific pension funds beat their peers in asset value growth in 2019, according to a report on the world’s top 300 pension funds by the Thinking Ahead Institute. Assets under management (AUM) of the top 20 pension funds grew 8.1% year-on-year in 2019, led by a 10.6% growth in the assets of Asia Pacific funds. Read...

US. Lost 401(k) accounts and pensions: How lawmakers want to fix the problem

For workers who lose track of their 401(k) savings accounts, help may be on the way. Proposed retirement legislation that’s pending in Congress would create an online “lost and found” database to help locate those accounts, among a variety of other provisions. While lawmakers are in the early stages of considering changes, retirement advocates say the initiative — which also would help people access lost pension benefits — can’t come soon enough. “We have serious problems with retirees not being able...

UK. Third of high risk DB transfers would pass new scam test

One in three defined benefit transfers flagged as high risk would be allowed under new government proposals designed to reduce scams, a consultancy has warned. XPS looked at data from its Scam Protection Service and found that of all the transfers flagged by the service since July 2018, one in three would have satisfied the ‘first condition’ of the Department for Work and Pensions’ proposed legislation. The government is planning to give trustees the power to halt suspicious transfers and has...

PIC confirms it owns 30% of new SAA consortium partner

The PIC has confirmed that it owns 30% of Harith General Partners, an investment group that's part of a consortium that will own a majority stake in SAA. While still the head of corporate finance at the PIC, Tshepo Mahloele, spearheaded the creation of Harith - which was founded with PIC investments. He later left the PIC to run Harith. The commission that investigated wrongdoing at the PIC found that Harith's conduct "was driven by financial reward to...

Impact investing grows to address problems raised by pandemic

Sometimes a crisis can help bring positive change. For impact investing, the COVID-19 pandemic and the inequities it exposed are boosting its outlook. Read also ​Pension investors press companies over Myanmar human rights risks Impact investments are made with the intention of generating positive and measurable social, economic and environmental outcomes as well as a financial return. Asset owners and managers put them under various asset and strategy buckets, including ESG or sustainable investing — and note that the one shorthand...

UK. Watchdog warns of imbalance in pension schemes

Almost two thirds of pension schemes’ liabilities of €64 billion have been accumulated to pay the pensions of the one third of members who have already retired. The lopsided nature of scheme finances is revealed in figures from the Pensions Authority, which show that providing a guaranteed income in retirement is becoming increasingly unsustainable for the dwindling number of employers that offer them. The Pensions Authority warned that trustees were running too much investment risk as schemes struggled to remain solvent. “This...