August 2021
27Aug

Canada. Union Files Legal Challenge Over OMERS’ Early Retirement Policy

A Canadian union has filed a legal challenge with Ontario’s independent pension regulator over the $82.4 billion Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS)’s policy for paramedic plan members’ access to early retirement options. According to the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), OMERS has two classifications for its members: normal retirement age 65 (NRA 65) and normal retirement age 60 (NRA 60). NRA 65 members can retire with an unreduced pension at the age of 65 at the earliest, or...

August 27, 2021
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27Aug

Global Pension Risk Survey 2019

By AON Welcome to the findings of Aon’s 2019 Global Retirement Risk Survey for the Asia-Pacific region. Aon’s Global Retirement Risk Survey has been conducted every two years for over a decade. The survey is part of a global series of surveys that follows defined benefit (DB) plan sponsors’ risk management attitudes and practices around the world. This is the first time that the survey has been conducted in the wider Asia-Pacific region. Japan took part in the research in...

August 27, 2021
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26Aug

How to avoid green bubbles and diversify against climate crisis

Although green bubbles are emerging as a result of the sustainability boom, investors can find safer ways to tap into the climate transition theme. This is according to Nikesh Patel, head of investment strategy at Kempen, who agreed that bubbles are emerging when investors invest in the theme too narrowly, giving the farmland sector as an example. Read also ESG: Impact Investing ‘If you invest only in listed farmland equities, and that became your focus - you are creating a bubble, because...

August 26, 2021
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25Aug

Sweden’s biggest pension manager cuts stocks on inflation concern

The specter of accelerating inflation is prompting the biggest pension manager in Sweden to cut its holdings of stocks and bonds. Read also Ireland. Pensions gap widens as pandemic deepens the divide Alecta, which manages $130 billion, is instead boosting exposure to alternative assets such as infrastructure projects and residential housing in an effort to preserve returns. Read also New Zealand. Super-sharers: How small contributions can push back against inequality "Longer term we may see rising inflation and that is one of the...

August 25, 2021
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24Aug

US. Companies Find It’s a Good Time to Push Pension Obligations Off Balance Sheets

Finance chiefs are stepping up their efforts to move pension obligations off company balance sheets through annuity purchases and other financial tools, taking advantage of well-funded plans and a respite from the scramble over the past year to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. For years, sponsors of single-employer pension plans have purchased annuities from an insurer for all or some of their employees with vested benefits, thus shrinking a plan’s assets and liabilities and simultaneously strengthening a company’s balance sheet....

August 24, 2021
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23Aug

China: New State Pension to Boost Retirement Savings

The establishment of the new state pension company is waiting for regulatory approval from the CBIRC. China plans to set up a state pension company with registered capital of CNY 11.15 billion (USD 1.72 billion) to boost the retirement funds available for its rapidly ageing population. According to Reuters, 17 bank-affiliated wealth management units, insurers and state institutions will take stakes in the company, whose largest shareholders include the wealth management units of China’s big five banks, each with a stake...

August 23, 2021
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20Aug

China plans $1.72bn national pension company

China plans to set up a national pension company in Beijing with registered capital of 11.15 billion yuan ($1.72 billion) as the country's population rapidly ages. Seventeen financial institutions will take stakes in the company, including the wealth management units of China's big five banks, each with 1 billion yuan, or 8.97%, the Insurance Association of China said Thursday in a statement on its website. China's largest brokerage, Citic Securities; Taikang Life Insurance; and the investment arm of Beijing's State-owned...

August 20, 2021
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19Aug

China’s pension funds post surge in investment returns in 2020

Chinese pension funds posted an investment return rate of 15.84% last year, nearly doubling the 20-year average of 8.51%, a report from the National Council for Social Security Fund showed on Wednesday, partly due to a jump in domestic stock markets. China, the world's most populous country, has been looking to boost its investment returns and size of its pension funds, to cope with a looming demographic crunch as population growth slows. To counter the economic impact of rapid ageing and...

August 19, 2021
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12Aug

Why it is important to start pensions early

Young savers and the self employed saw the largest proportional increases in financial vulnerability during the pandemic, rising by more than 40 percent, according to the Financial Conduct Authority. Since young people are now more likely to be much less comfortable retiring than their parents, it is important to start preparing for retirement sooner rather than later. Advice firm Purely Pensions has warned that savers in their 20s could lose more than £21,000 at retirement if they put off making contributions...

August 12, 2021
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09Aug

World’s Largest Pension Fund GPIF Now Holds Record $1.75 Trillion in Assets

Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund posted a fifth consecutive quarterly gain in its investments as returns from overseas assets helped make up for losses on domestic equities. Read also Nigeria. N12trn pension assets investment sidelines infrastructure The world’s biggest pension fund gained 2.7% for the quarter ended in June, boosting assets under management by 4.98 trillion yen ($45.4 billion) to a record 191.6 trillion yen, it announced on Friday. Overseas stocks were its best-performing investment, returning 8.6%, while domestic shares lost...

August 9, 2021
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