January 2026

US. What Retirement Savings Look Like for People Under 35

How Many People Under 35 Have Any Retirement Savings If you're in your 20s or early 30s, you may not be thinking much about retirement. Only about half of U.S. households with a reference person under age 35 had any money in retirement accounts in 2022, according to the latest available data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances. That makes young adults the working-age group that's the least likely to have dedicated retirement savings.1 This makes sense, of...

The gig economy is not the future of work — it’s a warning

By Quah Boon Huat   This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on January 5, 2026 - January 11, 2026 Affan Kurniawan, a 21-year-old ride-hailing driver and his family’s breadwinner, should have been invisible to power. On Aug 28 last year, an armoured police vehicle crushed him as it chased protesters. The video of his death seared Indonesia. Affan was not a protester. He was working — delivering food, saving for a home, keeping his family afloat. His killing ripped through Indonesia,...

German dentists’ pension fund sues advisers after C$1.77B loss

A pension fund for more than 10,000 German dentists has launched legal action against its former auditor, an external adviser and several ex-managers after suffering investment losses of over €1.1 billion (about C$1.77 billion), according to reporting by Bloomberg and AwazLive. Versorgungswerk der Zahnärztekammer Berlin (VZB), which manages roughly €2.2 billion (C$3.55 billion) for dentists in Berlin, Brandenburg and Bremen, said the losses were significant enough to prompt a corruption probe by Berlin prosecutors. In legal filings, the fund alleges that...

Chile. Multifondos de AFP tuvieron su mejor rendimiento en los últimos 6 años: A y B lideraron las ganancias

El 2025 fue un buen año para los multifondos de las AFP. Según datos revelados hoy por la Superintendencia de Pensiones (SP), los multifondos obtuvieron al cierre de diciembre su mejor rendimiento en seis años, con una importante recuperación tras diversos vaivenes en la economía global y nacional -como la pandemia de Covid-19-. La totalidad de los ahorros previsionales de los casi 12 millones de afiliados al sistema fue de 5.488,70 millones de UF, cifra equivalente a US$239.310,25 millones. Los multifondos de AFP vivieron...

México. Gasto en pensiones crece cuatro veces más que ingresos públicos

El pago de pensiones en México tuvo su mayor aumento desde 2012 y superó un billón y medio de pesos, un monto que representa cerca de una quinta parte del gasto público entre enero y noviembre de 2025, reportó la Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público. Hasta noviembre, el pago de pensiones había aumentado 8.7 por ciento anual en términos reales –descontado el efecto de la inflación–, casi cuatro veces más que el avance de 2.3 por ciento que tuvieron...

Chile. Compensación previsional para mujeres comenzará a pagarse en 2026

A partir de este mes comenzará a implementarse uno de los cambios más relevantes incluidos en la Reforma de Pensiones: una compensación económica destinada a mujeres, cuyo objetivo es corregir las diferencias en los montos de jubilación asociadas a una mayor expectativa de vida. El nuevo aporte previsional busca equilibrar las pensiones al comparar escenarios equivalentes entre hombres y mujeres de la misma edad, grupo familiar y nivel de ahorro, considerando que la mayor longevidad femenina ha incidido históricamente en jubilaciones más...

Funded status of largest US corporate pension plans now well over 100% for year-end 2025

The funded status of the nation’s largest corporate defined benefit (DB) pension plans improved significantly in 2025, according to an analysis by WTW (NASDAQ: WTW), a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company. WTW examined pension plan data for 349 Fortune 1000 companies that sponsor U.S. DB pension plans and have a December fiscal year-end date. The aggregate pension funded status of these plans at the end of 2025 is estimated to be 104%, an increase from 101% at the...

Gender Pension Gap in Europe Averaged 22% in 2024

Women in Europe receive significantly lower pensions than men, with the average gap across 27 European countries standing at 22%, according to data from the OECD and Eurostat reported by Euronews Business. This means that, on average across Europe, women receive just EUR78 in pension income, whereas men receive EUR100. The gender pay gap is a related phenomenon, with women in the EU earning 12% less than men in 2023. However, the pension gap is wider. In 2024, the gender...

Ghana. President Mahama pledges to review Single Spine Salary Structure and pensions

President John Dramani Mahama has pledged to carry out a review of the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) and pensions, as part of government efforts to address concerns of public sector workers. The President made the promise in his address at the opening of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) 54th National Delegates Congress and Seventh Quadrennial Conference in Accra, on the theme, “Education and Development: The Ghana Education Service (GES) at 50: Reflecting, Reviewing, Revising, and Growing the Profession and...

Retirement Planning Without Kids Demands Attention to Long-Term Care and Estate Strategies

Not having kids might mean fewer financial obligations, but it doesn’t automatically make retirement planning easier. In fact, flying solo as you age comes with its own set of complexities, from health care costs to estate decisions. Here’s what child-free adults should know when planning for life after work. More Freedom to Take Financial Risks Without children, many adults have fewer day-to-day expenses and more discretion over how—and when—they spend their money. “For most clients without kids, legacy planning is not a concern,” said Alex Caswell, founder of Wealth Script Advisors....