July 2021
29Jul

Designing the Best Solution for Retirement

By Robert C. Merton In March 2020, Robert Powell, Retirement Management Journal editor-in-chief; Zvi Bodie, PhD, president of Bodie Associates and the Norman and Adele Barron Professor Emeritus of Management at Boston University; and Stacy Schaus, founder and chief executive officer of Schaus Group LLC, spoke with Merton about retirement solutions for the twenty-first century working and middle classes, fintech, and solving for the right problems. Source: SSRN 509 views

July 29, 2021
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29Jul

Our pensions are the most powerful tools we have to fight climate change

Richard Curtis is urging people to take control of how their pension is invested and demand it is given to eco-friendly companies by lobbying their providers. The film director and sustainability campaigner, who is the founder of Make My Money Matter, said that our pensions, which are collectively worth trillions of pounds, are the most “powerful tools we have in our arsenal” to fight climate change. Speaking to iMoney editor Sarah Davidson during a live talk on Wednesday, he said: “There...

July 29, 2021
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28Jul

US. Can Robinhood be trusted with retirement accounts?

Robinhood, the brokerage popular among novice traders, may soon add retirement accounts onto its platform following its impending IPO, expected this week. New types of accounts could add scale to the brokerage—but may draw even more scrutiny from financial regulators. Robinhood, the brokerage popular among novice traders, may soon add retirement accounts onto its platform following its impending IPO, expected this week. New types of accounts could add scale to the brokerage—but may draw even more scrutiny from financial regulators. “Retirement...

July 28, 2021
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27Jul

China pensions starved of alternatives to stabilise returns

By Twinkle Zhou Experts warn that Beijing must take even speedier action to help its rapidly aging population save enough for retirement. In particular, the country’s regulators need to diversify the range of assets available for local pension funds into more alternative assets, to help them ensure more consistently high annual investment returns. Read also China to allow tax deductions for care of small children to help boost births Pension experts say the government and regulators do not lack for areas they...

July 27, 2021
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27Jul

Japan´s EPSF plots to build a financial system that supports sustainability

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced Japan’s aims for carbon neutrality and substantially zero CO2 emissions by 2050, in his October 2020 policy speech. He also announced at the climate change summit held in April 2021 that Japan aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 46% in FY2030 from its FY2013 levels. In order to achieve these types of environmental goals, many major countries consider that large scale of private funds would be required for the transition towards such new...

July 27, 2021
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26Jul

Ghana. GSE boss asks pension funds to boost equity holdings

The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), which is experiencing a bull market this year, provides enormous opportunities for pension funds to invest and realise good returns, Ekow Afedzie, Managing Director of the exchange, has said. Read also Ghana. Minister for Employment initiates mass pension enrolment programme Addressing industry players during a workshop under the theme “Maximising Investment Returns Using the Ghana Stock Exchange”, Mr. Afedzi said “though pension fund investments in fixed-income securities continue to increase, the same cannot be said of...

July 26, 2021
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22Jul

India. Want to give more options to pension funds, so opening up IPO investments: PFRDA chairman

Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) will soon allow pension fund managers (PFMs) to invest in initial public offerings (IPOs), follow on public offers (FPOs) and offer for sale (OFS). This would mean that PFMs could use their investment corpus to invest into upcoming IPOs including the Rs 16,000 crore initial public offering of Paytm. Speaking to Moneycontrol, Supratim Bandyopadhyay, Chairman, PFRDA said these will allow PFMs to have a wider range of investment options. "This will broaden the PFMs investment...

July 22, 2021
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21Jul

Austrian sustainable funds see record rise in AUM to €22.4bn

Assets under management (AUM) for Austrian sustainability-driven investment funds rose by 29% to €22.4bn in the first half of this year, up from €17.3bn in 2020, according to figures published last week by the Vienna-based investment companies association VÖIG. The number of sustainable funds on the market grew from 96 in 2020 to 106 in the first half of this year, figures show. Last year the Fachverband der Pensionskassen, Austria’s occupational pension fund association, floated the idea of a “green supplementary...

July 21, 2021
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16Jul

Is there really an ESG bubble?

Environmental, social and governance-focused investment is on the upswing like no other investment trend. In the first half of 2021, of 80 exchange-traded funds and mutual fund launches in the UK, 37 were ESG vehicles. Of these, 19 were equity funds, 16 mixed assets, and one each for bond and alternatives (chart 1). Bonds showed rather better last year with 12 launches, but whatever the year, equity launches dominate. This compares with 207 launches in 2020, of which 59 were ESG,...

July 16, 2021
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16Jul

UK. Pension tax change proposals branded ‘tragic’ and ‘crazy’

On the go: Rumours that the Treasury is planning to raid pensions have been branded “tragic” and “crazy” by speakers at a Hymans Robertson webinar, who warned that any reforms harming incentives to save could undo the work put in to boost retirement standards. Pensions Expert reported in June on the rumours that Treasury officials have drawn up a list of three reforms to the way pension contributions are taxed, with the aim being to find the money to pay...

July 16, 2021
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