September 2020

07Sep

UK universities and staff face huge jump in pension contributions

UK universities and thousands of their staff face increased annual pension costs totalling billions of pounds under proposals to plug an estimated £18bn deficit in the sector’s main retirement scheme. Read also £15bn boost if UK scraps pensions triple-lock, says think tank The £67bn Universities Superannuation Scheme, the UK’s largest private-sector pension fund, will on Monday lay out a range of options to reduce the burgeoning deficit, which was £3.6bn in 2018. Read also US. The crisis of multiemployer pension...

September 7, 2020
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August 2020

25Aug

Nigeria’s Federal Government Releases N14.92bn for Payment of Pension to Retirees

The federal government has released the sum of N14.92 billion for the payment of accrued rights for retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme(CPS). Read also Nigeria. Axa close to selling off pension fund arm According to a statement issued yesterday by the National Pensions Commission (PenCom), the disbursement will offset four months’ arrears. Read also Pakistan. The politics of pension reform The accrued pension rights represent an employee’s benefits for the past years of service up to June 2004, when the...

August 25, 2020
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12Aug

Despite Robust Returns, US Corporate Pension Funding Falls in July

A 39-basis-point drop in the monthly discount rate to a record-low 2.26% canceled out strong asset gains and lowered the funded ratio for the US’s 100 largest corporate pension plans to 81.1% at the end of July from 83.5% a month earlier. Read also US. Public Funds Lead Institutional Investment Rebound According to consulting firm Milliman’s Pension Funding Index (PFI), the funded status of the plans worsened by $68 billion during July, while the deficit jumped to $388 billion as...

August 12, 2020
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11Aug

US. Public Funds Lead Institutional Investment Rebound

Institutional plan sponsors posted a median plan return of 10.6% during the second quarter as markets rebounded from the COVID-19 pandemic-induced first quarter crash thanks to a strong performance by US equities, according to the Northern Trust Universe. The Northern Trust Universe tracks the performance of more than 320 large US institutional investment plans that have an aggregate asset value of more than $1 trillion. Public funds outperformed the other institutional segments tracked by Northern Trust, earning...

August 11, 2020
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10Aug

US. California’s immense pension dilemma

California’s public employee pension dilemma boils down to this: The California Public Employees Retirement System has scarcely two-thirds of the money it needs to pay benefits that state and local governments have promised their workers. Moreover, CalPERS’ official estimate that it is 70.8% funded is based on an assumption of future investment earnings averaging 7% a year, which probably is at least one or two percentage points too high. In the 2019-20 fiscal year that ended June 30, CalPERS...

August 10, 2020
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04Aug

UK. FTSE 350 pension deficit rises as COVID19 lockdown eases

Mercer’s Pensions Risk Survey data shows that the accounting deficit of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes for the UK’s 350 largest listed companies increased from £90bn at the end of June 2020 to £103bn on 31 July. Liability values rose by £13bn to £970bn at the end of July compared with £957bn at the end of June. Asset values were £867bn (unchanged since the end of June). Charles Cowling, Chief Actuary, Mercer, said: “Pension scheme deficits worsened again...

August 4, 2020
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July 2020

22Jul

UK. Impact of COVID-19 on life expectancy could reduce pension scheme liabilities by up to £90bn

Impact of COVID-19 on life expectancy could reduce pension scheme liabilities by up to £90bn New XPS forecasting shows long-term vulnerabilities in pension schemes following the pandemic. In some scenarios the long-term economic impact of COVID-19 on life expectancy could be 50% higher than the short-term impact of the pandemic. The economic impact on schemes' assets is also a significant consideration. Especially for those schemes holding growth assets and/or with low hedging ratios. Read also UK. Cybercrime and Pensions...

July 22, 2020
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14Jul

US. Milliman analysis: Corporate pension funded ratio at 83.7% in June as discount rate hits historic low

Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the results of its latest Pension Funding Index (PFI), which analyzes the 100 largest U.S. corporate pension plans. Despite solid investment returns, June's PFI funded status worsened by $6 billion due to an 11 basis point drop in the monthly discount rate, from 2.76% in May to 2.65% for June. This month's discount rate marks the lowest observed in the 20-year history of the Milliman PFI. The PFI...

July 14, 2020
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07Jul

The coronavirus crisis is pushing 13 UK universities towards insolvency, study says

Social distancing measures, travel restrictions and lockdowns have tested the ability of universities to survive without students. The institutions at higher risk of collapse are those with a large share of international students and those with significant pension obligations, the IFS said. Thirteen universities, or colleges, in the U.K. are at risk of going bankrupt as the coronavirus pandemic hits their finances and challenges the entire sector, a study by Institute for Fiscal Studies warned Monday. Social distancing...

July 7, 2020
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June 2020
20Jun

Returning to the Core: Rediscovering a Role for Real Estate in Defined Contribution Pension Schemes

By Debbie Harrison, David P. Blake, Tony Key The objective of the research was to analyse and evaluate the role of real estate in the UK’s defined contribution (DC) pensions market in relation to auto-enrollment – the new system of pension scheme provision for private sector employees in the UK, which is being phased in by all employers between October 2012 and 2018. The most important feature of auto-enrollment schemes is the ‘default fund’, which is the multi-asset investment strategy...

June 20, 2020
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