March 2021
10Mar

Australia. Age Pension increase for mid March

This announcement follows the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety's Final Report, tabled into Parliament on 26 February 2021, which outlined the necessary changes needed in the aged care sector From 20 March, 2021, all social security payments will be increased, including the Carer Payment. The Age Pension was not raised last September, which the peak body for older people, National Seniors Australia, says was the first time there was no increase to cover the cost of living in the...

March 10, 2021
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10Mar

Many over-55s could be heading for retirement income shortfall, says survey

Many over-55s who are approaching retirement risk exhausting their pension savings early, a survey suggests. A quarter (25%) of those aged 55 to 64 who are still working said they were only budgeting for their retirement income to last 10 years or less, Standard Life found. One in eight (12%) are planning for their retirement income to support them for just one to five years. Three in 10 (29%) over-55s expect to need the same amount of cash each year throughout their...

March 10, 2021
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09Mar

Banks, pensions, and sovereign funds fail to achieve gender balance, finds OMFIF

By Madeleine Taylor Less than 1 per cent of central banks, sovereign funds, public pension funds and commercial banks have achieved gender balance within their workforces, according to a comprehensive survey by Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF). Think tank OMFIF surveyed 540 institutions on gender diversity among senior staff, and found only three that had achieved perfect scores for gender balance among their senior staff, while another 12 were “close to achieving balance”. The three highest ranking institutions were US...

March 9, 2021
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09Mar

UK. Pension challenges women face will impact on their retirement

By Jessica List March 8 marks International Women’s Day and celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The campaign theme for this year is ‘Choose To Challenge’. The reason this has been chosen is that the organisers recognise that a challenged world is an alert world, and from challenge comes change. It is amazing to think that International Women’s Day is over 100 years old, the first gathering was in 1911. Much has changed over this time but according...

March 9, 2021
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09Mar

Ghana. Low financial literacy responsible for low patronage of pensions by women and informal workers

A Compliance officer with the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) says low financial literacy is the cause of low patronage of the pension scheme among women and people in the informal sector. Lois Asiamah said the lack of adequate and appropriate information concerning pensions has left a lot of Ghanaian women and others in the informal sector unaware of the opportunities and advantages of investing in a pension scheme. She added that due to the lack of financial literacy, people in...

March 9, 2021
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09Mar

Why SFDR is a gamechanger for the ESG landscape

Requirements emanating from the EU's Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), which are broad in scope, impacting not only asset managers but also other financial market participants including the likes of insurers, pension providers, as well as qualifying venture capital and social entrepreneurship managers. Julian Ide explains the significance of the SFDR In recent years, the demand for ESG products from investors has grown quite rapidly with no signs of slowing down. Investors increasingly want products that better reflect their values and beliefs,...

March 9, 2021
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09Mar

China Plans New State Pension Firm as Population Ages

China plans to create a new state-owned pension firm to tackle a massive funding gap as the world’s largest population struggles to finance retirement despite decades of economic growth. The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission is mulling a national pension company with state-owned banks and insurers as shareholders, according to people familiar with the discussions. Details such as the shareholding structure and size of investment are still being hammered out, they said, declining to be identified as the plan...

March 9, 2021
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09Mar

Taking a workforce break to raise children hurts retirement savings – economist

By Margarida Correia Taking time off from the workforce to take care of children can put a serious dent in workers’ long-term retirement savings. That was one of the central points that Michael Madowitz, an economist with the Center for American Progress, made as the keynote speaker Monday at Pensions & Investments' 2021 Defined Contribution Virtual Conference. A 29-year-old woman earning $44,000 who decides to take two years off for raising a child would not simply lose $88,000 for the two years she...

March 9, 2021
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08Mar

UK. Women would have to work 40 years longer to close the gap.

Mothers face more insecure and lower-paid work after having children, official figures suggest. Women with dependent children are seven times more likely to work part-time than men, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). More than 15% of mums also say they are economically inactive because of caring responsibilities, versus 1.9% of dads. One analyst said "millions of mums" were being forced to "pay the price" of a less secure career. The new research found that while mums who are employed were...

March 8, 2021
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08Mar

Warning lights flickering for South Africa’s wealthy taxpayers

“We owe a lot of people a lot of money.” That blunt, ominous statement by finance minister Tito Mboweni in his 2021 budget speech shows the deep financial hole the South African economy is really in – and warning lights are starting to flicker for South Africa’s wealthy taxpayers. This is according to Tim Mertens, chairman of Sovereign Trust SA, who said that a key takeaway from the budget was the staggering R213 billion under-collection of tax in 2021 compared to...

March 8, 2021
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