August 2021
09Aug

Nigeria. N12trn pension assets investment sidelines infrastructure

Federal Government’s dream of ramping up pension assets for investments into infrastructure development seems floundering as most recent report shows a stagnation in funds allocation to the sector. Meanwhile the bulk of the over N12trillion assets are going into Federal Government Bond borrowing instrument which are used for government recurrent expenditure. At the backdrop of the quest to address the huge infrastructure gap in the country, the pension policy had envisaged about 15 percent of the total pension asset would be...

August 9, 2021
News, Slider, , , ,
Read more...
06Aug

What’s the Ideal Asset Mix in Retirement? Is It 70/30? 60/40?

My wife and I are approaching retirement, and our financial adviser is recommending that we put about 70% of our nest egg in stocks and about 30% in bonds. This approach seems risky to me. Is it? My preferred mix is about 60/40. We hear questions frequently about asset allocation and pinpointing an optimal mix. The easy answer is: It depends. It depends, among other factors, on your ages, income from other sources (like Social Security and maybe a pension),...

August 6, 2021
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
05Aug

US. Government to pilot online retirement application

By Jessie Bur Federal employees planning to retire may soon have the option to complete the requirements using an online system, rather than through the paper format most widely used across the U.S. government. Office of Personnel Management Director Kiran Ahuja told reporters on an Aug. 4 call that the agency will pilot an online retirement application system to address some short-term problems with the federal retirement system, namely slow processing times. Modernization of the federal retirement system has been a central...

August 5, 2021
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
04Aug

US. Lockheed Martin offloads $4.9 billion in pension liabilities

Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, Md., purchased group annuity contracts from Athene Holding Ltd. to transfer about $4.9 billion in U.S. pension plan liabilities. The purchase completed Tuesday will transfer the benefit-paying responsibilities for about 18,000 U.S. retirees and beneficiaries to Athene's wholly owned subsidiaries Athene Annuity and Life Co. and Athene Annuity & Life Assurance Company of New York, a news release from the aerospace and defense company said Tuesday. The Athene subsidiaries will begin paying benefits to the retirees and...

August 4, 2021
News, Slider, , , ,
Read more...
03Aug

Europe’s Pension Funds Still Don’t Know How to Treat a Key Risk

The main organization representing European pension funds says it’s still not clear how the industry should balance financial returns against a desire to do more environmental and social investing. The lack of clarity means pension investors representing about $5 trillion may be putting less cash than they otherwise might into sustainable assets. That’s as the need for a decisive reallocation of capital toward planet-saving goals grows more urgent as global warming becomes increasingly deadly. How asset managers treat ESG risk will...

August 3, 2021
News, Slider, , , , ,
Read more...

July 2021
30Jul

Is the Aon/WTW deal collapse a positive for UK pensions?

The announcement that Aon and Willis Towers Watson (WTW) have called off their $30bn (£21.7bn) merger after the businesses reached an impasse with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) over competition issues did not come as a huge surprise to many. While the two firms received approval (with conditions) for the merger by the European Commission in July, the tie-up had become increasingly bogged down over issues with the DOJ - issues which cumulated in the US agency filing a...

July 30, 2021
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
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
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
27Jul

A healthier future for the Mexican pension industry

The last five years have been ones of intense transformation for the largest pension fund in Mexico. Establishing a sound and replicable investment process has been one of the main challenges for the team. Changing the team’s culture towards long-term investing, based on optimising diversification, has been the name of the game, and even though there are additional challenges in the future, positive results arise both from a quantitative and qualitative perspective. As a fusion between Banorte Bank and the...

July 27, 2021
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
23Jul

Importance of ‘social’ pillar in ESG increases for pension funds despite dearth of index strategies, survey finds

The ‘S’ pillar of environmental, social and governance (ESG) is becoming increasingly important for pension funds, however, a dearth of core-social related indices remain, according to a survey conducted by CREATE Research in partnership with DWS. The survey, which interviewed 142 pension plans, found 66% expect to increase their allocations to ‘S’ pillar passive funds over the next three years despite just 14% currently using core social-related indices. In the subsequent report, titled Passive Investing 2021: Rise of the social pillar...

July 23, 2021
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
22Jul

Prudential to Sell Its Retirement Division to Great-West for $3.55 Billion

Prudential Financial Inc. said it would sell its full-service retirement business to a unit of Canada’s Great-West Lifeco Inc. for $3.55 billion as the life insurer continues implementing Chief Executive Officer Charles Lowrey’s three-year transformation plan. The business will be purchased by Great-West’s Greenwood Village, Colorado-based Empower Retirement division. Prudential expects total proceeds of about $2.8 billion from the sale, which is expected to close in the first quarter of next year, the companies said in a statement. It will...

July 22, 2021
News, Slider, ,
Read more...