May 2026
15May

US. Mamdani’s counting on pension restructuring to balance the budget. Will the unions let that happen?

Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants to delay certain payments to the city’s pension funds to help close the city’s multibillion dollar funding deficit. The only problem is that he needs municipal labor unions’ approval to change up their retirement accounts, and some unions are mum about the plan while others outright oppose it. While it’s still early, the unions’ apprehension to immediately get on board speaks to the plan’s politically sensitive nature. The pension restructuring proposal is one of the lifelines...

May 15, 2026
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13May

The largest UK pension schemes are substantially ahead on climate action as smaller schemes risk falling further behind

88% of the largest schemes have a credible net zero implementation strategy compared to 61% on average for all schemes reviewed Almost all schemes with assets above £5bn now target net zero, compared with just over half of smaller peers, averaging 76% across all schemes. Average Implied Temperature Rise remains at 2.4°C, suggesting schemes are still exposed to assets misaligned with climate goals XPS Group, a leading UK consulting and administration business specialising in the pensions and insurance sectors,...

May 13, 2026
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13May

US. Labor unions oppose Senate crypto bill ahead of Thursday committee markup: report

Five labor organizations urged the U.S. Senate to oppose the pending crypto market structure bill, warning that the legislation would expose worker retirement accounts to cryptocurrency volatility. The opposing groups include the AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union, American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association, and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, CNBC reported Tuesday. According to CNBC, SEIU, AFT, NEA, and AFSCME wrote in a previously unreported May 9 letter that the bill “jeopardizes the stability of workers’ retirement plans, including...

May 13, 2026
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12May

Private credit is cracking, but pension funds aren’t blinking

Close to US$300bn flowed into private credit vehicles from institutional investors in 2025, and the money keeps coming — despite the sector's most turbulent stretch in years. Major pension systems are not just holding their private credit allocations; several are actively expanding them. Europe's largest pension investor, Dutch manager APG, plans to raise its private markets exposure above 30 percent of assets and could increase its private debt allocation to between 2 and 4 percent from roughly 1.5 percent currently, according to Reuters. In the...

May 12, 2026
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12May

Streamlining the risk transfer process: it’s harder than you might think

Ahead of a new research series from Pensions Expert into small scheme bulk annuities, members of the Endgame Perspectives Group explore how streamlined services have developed, their limitations, and how they can better serve pension schemes and members. Simplifying the risk transfer process isn’t as simple as it may appear. If we were to build the ideal risk transfer process for pension schemes now, without any baggage, what would it look like? Perhaps it’s a standardised process across insurers and advisers where contracts,...

May 12, 2026
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08May

Iran Conflict: How Long, and How Bad?

By Goldman Sachs The unprecedented US and Israeli coordinated attack on Iran has resulted in the largest energy supply disruption in history. With seemingly no end to the conflict in sight, its potential duration, impact on global energy supplies, and economic and market implications are Top of Mind. Chatham House’s Sanam Vakil and longtime US Middle East advisor Dennis Ross agree that an end to the conflict doesn’t look imminent owing to (the lack of) incentives on Iran’s side and...

May 8, 2026
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08May

Pension Systems, Demographic Aging, and the Home Bias Puzzle: Global Evidence

By Brian Peters This paper tests whether pension system growth mediates the relationship between demographic aging and cross-border portfolio diversification. Using a panel of up to 188 countries from 1990 to 2024, we find that demographic aging robustly predicts pension system growth (Z₁ = +69.2***, p = 0.0002, N = 1,225, 42 countries), establishing the first stage of the mediation chain. However, pension fund growth does not uniformly translate into changes in external portfolio allocation: the second stage (pension spending...

May 8, 2026
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07May

UK. TPR outlines vision for megafunds and simplified pensions market by 2036

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) chief executive, Nausicaa Delfas, has said the UK workplace pensions market could look “very different” by 2036, with a smaller number of large pension megafunds, greater consolidation and more scheme-led retirement solutions becoming the norm. Speaking at the Eversheds Sutherland UK Pensions Conference, Delfas said the pensions market was currently undergoing “the biggest changes in pensions since the introduction of auto-enrolment”. Setting out her vision for the future of the UK pensions system, Delfas said she expected to...

May 7, 2026
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April 2026
29Apr

Market Turmoil Sparked by Iran War Wiped Out $233B in Public Pension Funding

A 3.5% aggregated investment loss spurred by war in the Middle East wiped $233 billion from the 100 largest U.S. public pension plans in March, dropping their funded levels to 83.7% from 87% in February, according to actuarial and consulting firm Milliman. It was the first time the dataset recorded investment losses in more than a year, and it halted the progress of the aggregate funded level’s steady rise from almost 80% funded 12 months earlier. Milliman estimated that individual...

April 29, 2026
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29Apr

Australia. Solving the $326 billion ‘stranded’ pension asset problem

More than 1.5 million Australians aged 65 and over have left money sitting in superannuation accumulation phase, paying tax at 15 per cent on investment earnings when they could be in the tax-free pension phase and receiving higher retirement income. A dialogue paper published by the Actuaries Institute, It’s Time: Here’s How to Turn Superannuation into a Retirement Income System, puts the aggregate value of those “stranded” balances at $326 billion. the additional tax cost to those individuals exceeds $2 billion...

April 29, 2026
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