April 2021

Spain. The Silent Reform Of Pensions

Spain has a critical and essential employment problem: high chronic unemployment and job insecurity. Both of these are amongst the key causes of an embarrassing inequality, one of the worst in Europe. Then, to complicate the solutions, comes the problem of the high public deficit, which has increased over the last decade as an inevitable inevitability. A debt aggravated by its dependence on external financing with a bias towards instability. And at the heart of this debt is the...

UK. Pension Superfunds: Bright Future or Flash in the Pan?

The Pension Superfund is an interesting development for employers and employees in the United Kingdom and is beginning to become relevant in all of Europe. Insurers have recently been given the green light to offer the superfund and several insurers are already putting this in place for their customers. These Pensions represent a new and highly regulated 'vehicle' designed to consolidate UK occupational Defined Benefit (DB) pension funds. The superfund is achieved using a novel new method that accepts bulk...

Retiring While Black

When you consider unemployment statistics, to be young, employed, and Black may seem like a victory unto itself. That’s even more true if you have a job you call a career and a professional future that looks bright. Many Black people who are now of retirement age have not been so fortunate, and many pre-retirees continue to live paycheck to paycheck. Indeed, when you look at how the Black community fares in terms of retirement readiness, the statistics give cause...

What to Do (and Not Do) With a Target-Date Fund After Retiring

Target-date funds are a staple of employer-sponsored retirement funds, due in part to their ease of use. The funds adjust allocations over decades, starting with big equity exposures, then glide gradually into more fixed income. But some investors don’t stick with them, particularly after they retire. Thinking they can do a better job of managing their money than a target-date funds’ manager, some investors shift the money into individual retirement accounts where they invest in other types of funds. Is that...

Zimbabwe. 100% payout hike, grocery vouchers for pensioners

Pensioners and widows are set to get a 100% increase to their monthly stipends, as well as grocery vouchers worth $3 000 from the National Social Security Authority (Nssa), NewsDay reported. Nssa deputy director for marketing Tendai Mutseyekwa told NewsDay that pensioners were going to get a 100% increment this month. "They are getting 100% increment this April and we are saying we are giving them this increment and the (COVID-19) vaccines at the same time. We will also give them...

The Potential Financial Silver Lining of the Pandemic

To say the last year has been unprecedented might be the understatement of the century. It is hard to imagine anyone who has not been impacted in some manner, some far more than others, by the pandemic. Personal finances are no exception as the volatility of the past year remains front and center for many despite recent market recovery. However, something interesting is happening. Many people are doing what their financial professionals have been asking them to do since their...

Russian lawmakers call for lower pension age ahead of election

Russia's Just Russia party that supports President Vladimir Putin has introduced a bill to reverse a recent unpopular pension reform and lower retirement ages to their previous levels, RIA news agency quoted the party leader as saying on Wednesday. Read also Japan approves law raising retirement age to 70 Putin, who once promised to never raise the retirement age, approved a gradual pension age increase in October 2018 despite mass street protests and public discontent as Russia sought ways to relieve...

The U.K.’s policy on overseas pensions is costing Canadian taxpayers

"This is not a party matter," said Ian Andexser of Nanaimo, B.C., who heads the Canadian Alliance of British Pensioners. "This is a snub to Canada." And across the pond in England, Conservative MP Sir Roger Gale has come to the same conclusion: the government of which he is a member has acted "in very bad faith indeed" toward Canada. The matter angering both individuals is a British government policy that excludes U.K. pensioners who live mostly in Canada and Australia...

Climate change worse than pandemic: UK regulator

The chief executive of the UK's Pensions Regulator believes climate change will be more catastrophic to populations' way of life than the COVID-19 pandemic if no action is taken. The comments came as The Pensions Regulator chief executive Charles Counsell introduced the regulator's new climate strategy, providing pension funds with a framework for disclosing climate information and achieving net zero emissions by 2050. Counsell said: "In recent times we've faced a crisis caused by a pandemic. We've all taken urgent action...

The pandemic has shown that workers in the informal economy need a safety net, too

The coronavirus pandemic has hit the developing world’s informal economy hard. Existing on the margins, with no access to social safety nets such as unemployment insurance and pensions, many of the 2 billion informal workers around the world were already barely keeping their heads above water before the lockdowns. One analysis estimated that 1.6 billion informal sector workers worldwide would suffer a 62 percent decline in income in the first few months of the crisis alone, with workers in...