June 2022
08Jun

US. Senators introduce SECURE 2.0 companion

Less than two weeks after releasing a discussion draft, leaders of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee introduced a retirement security bill that will likely serve as a piece of the Senate's SECURE 2.0 package. Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., committee chairwoman, and Richard Burr-R-N.C., the committee's ranking member, introduced the Retirement Improvement and Savings Enhancement to Supplement Healthy Investments for the Nest Egg Act, or RISE & SHINE Act, and said their committee will markup the bill on...

June 8, 2022
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08Jun

US. Corporate Pension Health Continues to Worsen in May

U.S. corporate pension plans ended May with a drop in their aggregate funded status — a simple measure of their financial health. The funded ratio for U.S. corporate pension plans decreased by 0.9 percentage points from April 30 to May 31, according to Wilshire’s May 2022 U.S. corporate pension plans funding report. Specifically, the aggregate funded ratio of the combined assets and liabilities of corporate pension plans sponsored by S&P 500 companies dropped from 98 percent at the end of...

June 8, 2022
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May 2022
30May

UK. Pension savers struggle to consolidate pots

More than one in 10 (11 per cent) of pension savers are struggling to consolidate their pension pots, according to research from pension specialists iSipp. The consolidation of pension pots could reduce annual fees and save time on administration. However, more than one in 10 have tried to consolidate funds and failed, while nearly two out of five (38 paper cent) admit they do not know how to consolidate pensions into one fund. Just one in five (19 per cent) of those...

May 30, 2022
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05May

U.S. corporate pension plan funding rises in April

U.S. corporate defined benefit plan funding ratios rose in April despite poor market returns, primarily due to rising discount rates, which lowered liability values, three reports show. In Wilshire Advisors' monthly report, the aggregate funding ratio for U.S. corporate pension plans increased by 30 basis points in April, to 97.4% as of April 30 from 97.1% as of March 31. While assets fell 7.7 percentage points due to a troubled equities market in February, liability values offset those losses by dropping...

May 5, 2022
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March 2022

UK. Pension dashboards are coming - action for occupational pension schemes to take now
18Mar

UK. Pension dashboards are coming – action for occupational pension schemes to take now

Establishing a system of “pension dashboards” to enable individuals who have yet to take retirement benefits to find clear, standardised information about all their pension arrangements (including rights to state pension) in one place is a key element of the government’s pension strategy. The ambition is laudable but achieving it will be a mammoth task, requiring significant time and resource from occupational pension scheme trustees, pension managers and administrators. All UK occupational pension schemes with 100 or more non-pensioner members...

March 18, 2022
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10Mar

The Current State of U.S. Workplace Retirement Plan Coverage

By John Sabelhaus Despite widespread support for government policies aimed at improving workplace retirement plans, nearly half of wage and salary workers in the U.S. still lack coverage. The lack of employer-sponsored pensions or other workplace retirement saving plans has led to state-level government initiatives aimed at expanding coverage to workers whose employers do not offer such plans. Designing and implementing efforts to broaden workplace retirement plan coverage requires understanding what types of workers lack coverage, in terms of both...

March 10, 2022
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10Mar

US. Corporate pension buyouts record second-highest year in volume

U.S. corporate pension plan buyout sales totaled $34.2 billion in 2021, the highest volume since 2012, a LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute survey found. Volume should only increase as more U.S. corporate pension plans are showing interest in completing such deals, the institute said. For the fourth quarter, single premium buyout sales volume was $12.8 billion, down 19% from the $15.8 billion in volume in the third quarter and down 7.2% from the $13.8 billion in volume in the fourth quarter of...

March 10, 2022
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03Mar

Valmex steps up efforts to grow in Mexico’s stagnant private-pension segment

After 14 years at Principal, Luis Lozano, a champion of open architecture, joined Valmex in February 2021. Since then, the institutional-investments head has been working to enhance the pension segment of Valmex’s business, as he told Fund Pro Latin America in an exclusive interview. “It is necessary to develop the voluntary pension market, especially for those with higher income who are not fully covered under the traditional and obligatory pension market (via the Afores). In this segment, replacement rates are...

March 3, 2022
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February 2022
24Feb

GEPF Annual Report 2020/2021

By GEPF Economic environment The financial year ending 31 March 2021, was a ‘tale of two worlds’, with strong recovery from developed financial markets being contrasted by weak economic growth in most emerging markets. This effect was also mirrored by the divergence in vaccination rates between developed and emerging markets. Locally, the picture has been familiar. There was very strong growth in financial markets, however, this needs to be contrasted by the stark economic climate in South Africa. The impact...

February 24, 2022
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08Feb

AstraZeneca moves to terminate U.S. pension plan

AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, Wilmington, Del., has announced plans to terminate its U.S. defined benefit plan. The company informed participants in its AstraZeneca Defined Benefit Plan on Jan. 25 of its intention to terminate the plan, according to a statement emailed by AstraZeneca's media relations team. The termination "involves transferring the responsibility for payments, recordkeeping and asset management to a qualified, carefully selected insurance company with expertise in the long-term management of pension benefits," according to the statement. The U.S. defined benefit plan...

February 8, 2022
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