May 2020
15May

How the UK pensions industry is paving the way for open data sharing ecosystems

As consumer expectations around digital services increase, businesses across every sector are looking to meet a growing demand for better, and more user-friendly, applications of data. The Covid-19 pandemic has only accelerated this shift to digital as traditionally offline activities move online, and businesses are racing to stay ahead of both their customers and their competitors. The UK pensions industry might not seem an obvious place to look for inspiration about how to adapt to digital transformation, but that...

May 15, 2020
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14May

US. Federal Retirement Fund Halts Planned China Investment Under Pressure

A government retirement fund on Wednesday halted plans to invest in Chinese stocks this year, after growing criticism that the move would channel the savings of government workers to companies that are working against the national security goals of the United States. Read also Beijing hits back at Trump call to block US pension fund investment in China In a statement, the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, which manages the retirement savings plan, said it had “deferred the transition” of...

May 14, 2020
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14May

Beijing hits back at Trump call to block US pension fund investment in China

Donald Trump’s order to stop the US government’s main pension fund from investing in Chinese equities will only hurt US investors, Beijing has warned as trade tensions between the countries threatened to turn into a “financial fight”. Beijing officials have been worried since late last year that Mr Trump would follow up his two-year China trade battle with action in financial markets. In letters to the head of the government’s main pension fund, which Mr Trump does not directly...

May 14, 2020
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14May

Tesla’s Newest Board Member Talks About Changing The World Through Japan’s $1.5 Trillion Pension Fund

By putting environmental, social, and governance (ESG) at the heart of the world’s largest pension fund’s investments, Hiromichi Mizuno (known as Hiro) not only rocked the world of traditional pension finance but also had a profound impact on the cause of socially responsible investing. During his tenure as the Executive Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of Japan’s $1.5 trillion Global Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), Mizuno reached the conclusion that the fund had become so big that it essentially...

May 14, 2020
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13May

US. Trump Pressures Federal Pension to Halt Planned Chinese Stock Purchases

The Trump administration is pressing an independent board charged with overseeing billions in federal retirement dollars to freeze plans to invest in Chinese companies that Washington suspects of abusing human rights or threatening U.S. security. At issue is whether administrators of the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), a retirement savings fund for federal employees and members of the military, should allow its $40 billion international fund (I-Fund) to track an index that includes some China-based stocks of companies under scrutiny...

May 13, 2020
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13May

UK. Women in lower-grade jobs hit by pension change ‘at greater risk of depression’

Women in lower-grade occupations forced to work up to six years longer because of changes to the state pension age are a third more likely to suffer debilitating, potentially permanent, depression, research has found. The changes to the state pension age (SPA) have also resulted in a widening gap in health between women from different occupations, according to a paper by academics at King’s College London. “Our research is important because we know that worsening mental health will lead...

May 13, 2020
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13May

Some insights from the ‘United Kingdom 2020: Workplace Pensions Consumer Study’

The "Workplace Pensions Consumer Research Report 2020" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. 55% of all consumers have a workplace pension Over half of all consumers have a workplace pension and among consumers with workplace pensions, most (51%) have a defined contribution (DC) pension with just over four-in-ten owning a final/career average pension. 85% of adults with a workplace pension have a pension with their current employer, with 15% having legacy pensions from previous employers. This report is...

May 13, 2020
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13May

Millennials step into caregiving roles for aging parents

Millennial women already caring for aging parents or planning to do so are much more stressed about the caregiving responsibility than men, a new poll reveals. CaringAdvisor found 1 in 2 Millennials planning to care for aging parents say they want to do it. However, guilt was the biggest motivator, with about two-thirds admitting they’d feel guilty if they didn’t care for parents themselves. Women were more than two times as likely as men to be “extremely stressed” about...

May 13, 2020
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12May

Stock market wipes out Kenyan pensioners’ $350m in just three months

Kenyan retirees lost over Ksh35 billion ($350 million) to falling stock prices and soaring inflation as the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the country’s economy in the past three months. Read also Australia. COVID-19 has killed 12% superannuation A survey conducted by Zamara Consulting Actuaries covering 415 pension schemes with a total of Ksh852.4 billion ($8.52 billion) in assets under management shows that the returns on pensioners’ investments in the three months to March 31 dropped, prompting a shift from...

May 12, 2020
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12May

DB Funded Status Estimates Are Mixed in April

Firms that track defined benefit (DB) plan funded status reported a range of estimates for April—from a decrease of 0.1% to an increase of 4%, depending on the group of plans being tracked. The highest increase reported was 4% (to an 80% aggregate funding level), estimated by Mercer for pension plans sponsored by S&P 1500 companies. The firm says this was the result of an increase in equity markets, which offset a decrease in discount rates. As of April...

May 12, 2020
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