February 2022
17Feb

Australian market praised in latest pension study

Global pension fund assets have doubled in the last decade, with Australia's pension assets growing by 11.6% in 2021 and seeing it described as "the most successful pensions market". The latest Global Pension Assets Study from Willis Towers Watson's Thinking Ahead Institute shows global pension assets in the world's 22 largest markets now sit at US$56 trillion. This shows year-on-year growth of 6.9% in 2021. Interestingly, Australia has the largest growth rate of any country in the study over the past...

February 17, 2022
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January 2022
20Jan

Australian Pension Seeks to Double Its Assets to $108 Billion by 2025

Australia’s Construction & Building Unions Superannuation Fund expects to double assets to A$150 billion ($108 billion) in three years by snapping up rivals as regulator scrutiny forces smaller firms to exit. The Melbourne-based fund is talking to like-minded firms which will help it hit the target “in a couple years,” the A$68 billion fund’s Chairman Wayne Swan said in an interview Wednesday. “We don’t seek to grow for growth’s sake,” he said. “We seek to grow so we can deliver a...

January 20, 2022
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December 2021
06Dec

Australia’s $3.3 trillion pension pot reaps dividends with ESG

Responsible investing is paying dividends for Australia's A$3.4 trillion (S$3.3 trillion) pension pot. Funds seen as sustainable leaders controlled 42 per cent of the assets in the nation's default savings plans last year, up from 28 per cent in 2019, according to the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia (RIAA). The 13 leading funds - which integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices, are transparent and demonstrate a commitment to good governance and accountability - also outperformed rivals over three, five and...

December 6, 2021
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November 2021
22Nov

Australia. Global Managers Circle as Retiring Boomers Cash In Billions

Almost two million Australians will soon start drawing down A$300 billion ($218 billion) in savings as they leave the workforce, and that’s providing opportunities for domestic, and increasingly overseas, asset managers as retirement costs soar at the quickest pace in seven years. Read also UK. How will the new pension transfer restrictions work? “The decumulation problem is the trickiest problem in finance to solve because everyone’s going to have a different set of needs and requirements and aspirations in retirement,” Richard...

November 22, 2021
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05Nov

Pensions, Income Taxes and Homeownership: A Cross-Country Analysis

By Hans Fehr, Maurice Hofmann & George Kudrna This paper studies the role of pensions and income taxes in determining homeownership and household wealth. It provides a cross-country analysis, using tax and pension policy designs in Germany, the US and Australia. These developed nations have similar incomes per capita but very different homeownership rates, with the US and Australia having much higher homeownership compared to Germany. The question is to what extent the observed differences in homeownership are induced by...

November 5, 2021
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October 2021
15Oct

Gender Inequality in Retirement Savings

By Dr David Knox, Michael Rice and Richard Dunn Over the last twenty years, there has been increasing interest in the reasons for the gap between the average male and female retirement balances. This gap, known as the gender pension gap1, is characterised by the fact that, on average, women tend to live on a lower income in retirement than men. It is usually measured by combining all sources of retirement income, whether public or private, pay-as-you-go or funded. In this...

October 15, 2021
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13Oct

Superannuation gives Australians a stake in nation’s prosperity: Minister

Superannuation Minister Jane Hume has told a world summit on retirement incomes Australia’s compulsory saving system has helped the nation weather financial shocks and given people a stake in its prosperity. The federal government has resisted a fierce push from within its ranks during the past two years to overhaul the system by scrapping a legislated increase to the superannuation guarantee and give Australians greater access to their savings for housing deposits. Speaking to the World Pension Summit in The Hague...

October 13, 2021
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08Oct

Australian Pensions See Foreign Currencies as Cushion From Shock

Australia’s pension funds are set to boost foreign currency holdings as an alternative to fixed-interest assets to shore up their portfolios against market shocks. That’s the view of Mark Delaney, the Chief Investment Officer of AustralianSuper Pty, who sees this happening over the next five years amid persistently low yields on government bonds. Given the Australian dollar’s link to demand for commodities and global growth, holding overseas currencies can be a good hedge against market volatility and downturns, he told the...

October 8, 2021
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September 2021
14Sep

Australia. Most vulnerable excluded from Disability Support Pension

The number of people locked out of disability support and forced on to inadequate JobSeeker Payments has more than tripled since 2007 as a direct result of ever-tightening eligibility rules, a new report has found. The Dead Ends report, by the Brotherhood of St. Laurence (BSL), Associate Professor Karen Soldatic, Western Sydney University; and Australian Federation of Disability Organisations, found an increasing number of people living with disability, psycho-social impairments and/or chronic illnesses are being assessed as having a “partial...

September 14, 2021
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August 2021
19Aug

Pensions, Income Taxes and Homeownership: A Cross-Country Analysis

By Hans Fehr, Maurice Hofmann & George Kudrna This paper studies the role of pensions and income taxes in determining homeownership and household wealth. It provides a cross-country analysis, using tax and pension policy designs in Germany, the US and Australia. These developed nations have similar incomes per capita but very different homeownership rates, with the US and Australia having much higher homeownership compared to Germany. The question is to what extent the observed differences in homeownership are induced by...

August 19, 2021
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