September 2025
05Sep

Integrating Risk Management into Personal Financial Decisions

By Navin Kumar Effective personal financial planning demands navigating a landscape of uncertainty. This chapter explores how integrating risk management practices into personal finance decisions empowers individuals to achieve their financial goals. We begin by outlining the contemporary challenges individuals face and the importance of proactive planning. The chapter then delves into the concept of risk in personal finance, categorizing potential threats and their impact on financial stability. We highlight the benefits of a risk management approach, emphasizing its role...

September 5, 2025
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02Sep

UK. ​Schemes urged to probe asset managers’ net zero commitments

Pension schemes and institutional investors should look beyond industry pledges when assessing whether their asset managers are genuinely committed to net zero, consultancy LCP has said. The warning follows recent changes and an ongoing review of the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative. While such pledges provide a useful indication of intent, including target setting and progress reporting, LCP said pension schemes must scrutinise managers’ actions more closely to ensure climate goals are credible. LCP has suggested four questions for pension schemes...

September 2, 2025
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02Sep

As Asia’s over-65 population nearly doubles by 2050, insurers face new financial risks: Swiss Re

As Asia’s population ages rapidly, insurers must adjust their strategies to meet the changing needs of older adults, according to Ping Ji, Matt Singleton, and Torben Swart of Swiss Re Group, a global reinsurance company that provides research and risk management support to life and health insurers. In 2000, only 6% of the region’s population was aged 65 or older; by 2025, this is projected to reach 10%, and by 2050 nearly one in five people will be in this...

September 2, 2025
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August 2025
26Aug

India. Switching from UPS to NPS? Govt clears one-time window with strict eligibility rules

The Ministry of Finance has introduced a one-time, one-way switch option for Central Government employees currently enrolled under the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS), allowing them to move to the National Pension System (NPS). According to an official memorandum dated August 20, 2025, this facility is available to UPS subscribers up to one year before their superannuation or three months before voluntary retirement. Employees facing dismissal, removal, or disciplinary action will not be eligible. Once the switch is exercised, employees will no...

August 26, 2025
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19Aug

Big tax changes for these retirement funds in South Africa

South Africans with foreign retirement funds and foreign nationals who become South African tax residents face a major shift from 1 March 2026. This follows a proposal from the National Treasury, which wants to scrap the current exemption and give SARS taxing rights over foreign retirement income. This was explained by Tax Consulting SA’s cross-border taxation legal manager, Delano Abdoll, and team lead, John-Paul Fraser. Abdoll and Fraser stressed that retirement planning is a crucial financial component for South African expatriates and...

August 19, 2025
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14Aug

Global investors find greener pastures beyond US borders

A sharp US$13.6bn moved into global ex-US equity funds in July, the largest monthly inflow since December 2021, as per LSEG Lipper data reported by Reuters. Investors increasingly redirected capital away from the United States, citing economic concerns, high stock valuations, and a weakening dollar. According to S&P Global, July’s US Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 2.7 percent year-on-year, unchanged from June and below market expectations. While this bolstered market conviction for a September interest rate cut—pricing in nearly 100 percent likelihood compared to...

August 14, 2025
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08Aug

Optimization Algorithms for Pension Asset Allocation Under Market Volatility

By Akshay Sharma & Satish Kabade Pension fund organizations function as essential financial entities that protect employee retirement funds to provide complete and punctual pension distributions. Pension fund effectiveness through asset distribution determines how well a fund meets its future obligations. Traditional methods of portfolio optimization align with the Modern Portfolio Theory through the Markowitz model to help determine asset allocation by defining the relationship between return and risk. These static modeling approaches fail to fulfill their purpose in real...

August 8, 2025
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01Aug

Competition Among Dutch Pension Funds: Is there Any?

By Jacob Antoon Bikker & Jeroen Meringa This paper adds to the literature by analysing for the first time the functioning of the Dutch pension funds market from a competition or efficiency perspective. Of course, competition is severely limited on this highly regulated market. The analyses focus on a key property of well-functioning markets: the reward of efficiency. The conclusion can be drawn that in the market for pension funds efficiency is indeed rewarded, up to a certain level. New...

August 1, 2025
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July 2025
31Jul

Kenya. Retirement: Strategic partnerships critical in growing pension savings

Retirement benefits accumulated by Kenyan workers over the years hit an estimated total of Sh2.3 trillion last year, equivalent to nearly 15 per cent of Kenya’s GDP, underscoring the importance of this critical sector. With the inflation always competing to erode workers' savings, retirement benefits service providers are under pressure to preserve their clients’ wealth. The industry’s assets under management have recorded a 10.7 per cent compounded annual growth rate in the past ten years, from Sh800 million in 2015. This...

July 31, 2025
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25Jul

State of the nation: DB endgames – where are we now and what’s next?

By Laura McLaren & Lauren Branney  For those managing defined benefit (DB) pension schemes, it’s a pivotal and exciting time. The pensions landscape has changed significantly in recent years, opening up new strategic possibilities. We’ve seen record-breaking activity in the bulk annuity market and growing innovation in consolidation, and alternative risk transfer, leading to new settlement options. We’ve also seen more schemes considering the potential benefits of running on. We explore how the DB pensions environment has shifted, and what this could...

July 25, 2025
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