About half of all UK defined benefit pension funds are now targeting a buy-out as their long-term objective, new research shows. A survey of 100 DB pension scheme trustees by consultancy Hymans Robertson revealed the number of pension funds aiming for self-sufficiency has dropped markedly in the past four years, down to just 37% from 81%. Now, the number of funds aiming for a buy-out has increased to 49% - up from just 15% four years ago. The remaining...
Ontario Regulation 520/20 (the “Amending Regulation”) which amends Regulation 909 under the Pension Benefits Act (Ontario) (the “PBA”) came into force. The Amending Regulation provides temporary relief from pension funding obligations to employers of certain Ontario-registered defined benefit plans in two respects, as discussed below. Extension to make Catch-up Contributions The Amending Regulation provides employers of Ontario-registered defined benefit plans with a temporary extension of time to make contributions that are due under a valuation report (“Catch-up Contributions”) that...
Now may be a good time for companies looking to de-risk their defined benefit (DB) pension plans to consider an annuity buyout, according to new data from consulting firm Mercer, which shows a hypothetical retiree buy-out transaction costs an estimated 97.7% of a plan’s accounting obligations. Mercer said the new data is a result of recent tweaking the company made to its US Pension Buyout Index, which tracks the relationship between the accounting liability for a defined benefit plan...
Canadian defined benefit pension plans experienced a pronounced upsurge in the second quarter, posting a median return of 9.6 per cent, according to the RBC Investor & Treasury Services All Plan Universe. This marked the highest single quarter return in the universe's history, reversing the steep Q1 losses and raising the median plan's return to 1.4 per cent on a year-to-date basis. The gains followed a series of aggressive fiscal and monetary support measures introduced in March to...
The Edo State Government has expended over N4.3 billion in clearing the backlog of outstanding pension arrears owed about 3,128 pensioners in the state. The state government also spent N25, 047,472,632.77 in the monthly pension payment of 13,081 pensioners from November 2016 to May 2020. According to a Mid-Year Report by the Edo State Pension Bureau as at 30th June, 2020,“the government spent a total of N771,714,393.01 between November and December 2016 for the payment of pensions;...
UK defined benefit (DB) pension schemes are losing out on over £250m of additional income per year in their global equity portfolios because they are investing via less tax-efficient fund structures than those available, according to new research from The Asset Management Exchange (AMX) and Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS), conducted by Broadridge Financial Solutions. Read also UK. £127bn transferred out of workplace schemes since 2015 – ONS UK pension schemes, as tax-exempt investors, are entitled to apply for reclaims or...
The Chamber of Commerce's chief executive says he is "baffled" at the government's failure to reform public sector pensions by making civil servants contribute towards their own retirement costs. Jeffrey Beckles, speaking on a webinar hosted by the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Society of The Bahamas, said: "I can't find a model in the world that has been using the same system where it has proven successful or profitable, and I don't know what causes us to feel that...
By M Barton Waring, Robert C Merton Pension plans around the world are in a state of crisis. U.S. plans alone are facing a total accrued liability funding deficit of almost $4 trillion (of the same order of magnitude as the federal debt), a potential financial catastrophe that ranks among the largest ever seen. It has become clear that many government, corporate, and multi-employer pension sponsors will not be able to cope with this crippling debt and may default...
By The Pensions Regulator Welcome to the fourth edition of the DB landscape publication, TPR’s annual reporton the defned beneft (DB) pension schemes that we regulate. We have taken this information from the pension schemes register on 31 March 2019 and included DB an hybrid occupational schemes with more than one member. Our publication differs from the Pension Protection Fund (PPF)’s Purple Book as their data includes only those DB scheme, eligible for the lifeboat fund. We present the...
Defined benefit pension plans, including cash balance plans, require a contribution each year, which is primarily used to fund the benefits which participants accrue (i.e., earn) during the plan year. The annual required contribution may also include an amount needed to make up a shortfall in a prior year in the investment return on plan assets. In most defined benefit pension plans, a participant earns a benefit for a plan year after working 1,000 or more hours during that...
