June 2020
18Jun

Boris Johnson Has ‘No Plans’ to Scrap Key U.K. Pension Pledge

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has “no plans” to abolish a politically sensitive election pledge he made to the U.K.’s pensioners, despite fears among government officials that the policy could be at risk in the pandemic fallout. Officials are aware that the pensions “triple lock,” promised by the last three Conservative prime ministers as a guarantee that retirement incomes will keep rising, may have to be reviewed, a person familiar with the matter said. Johnson’s spokesman played down the...

June 18, 2020
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18Jun

Japan Mulls Resubmitting Legislation to Raise Retirement Age of Civil Servants

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government will consider resubmitting legislation to raise the retirement age for civil servants, its top spokesman said on Wednesday, after public backlash prompted the withdrawal of draft legislation. During the parliamentary session that ended on Wednesday, the government abandoned its push to enact legislation that would raise prosecutors' retirement age to 65 from 63, and let the cabinet defer retirement of senior prosecutors for a further three years. Critics and others argued it would...

June 18, 2020
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17Jun

UK. Pensions triple lock at risk from Covid-19 fallout

Rishi Sunak is preparing to break the Conservative party’s “triple lock” state pension pledge, amid Treasury fears that the policy could soon become unaffordable because of the fallout from the coronavirus crisis. The UK chancellor’s willingness to break a 2019 Tory manifesto commitment is a sign of how the Covid-19 pandemic is forcing the government to confront political taboos. Mr Sunak has been warned that unless he breaks the pledge next year, the value of the state pension could...

June 17, 2020
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16Jun

Publication of EIOPA’s Annual Report 2019

Today, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) published its 2019 Annual Report, setting out its activities and achievements of the past year. Throughout the course of the year, EIOPA continued to play an essential role in the supervision of insurance and pensions in Europe, working closely with national supervisory authorities, European institutions and other stakeholders to fulfil its strategic objectives set out in its annual work programme. EIOPA significantly strengthened its work on conduct of business supervision. EIOPA...

June 16, 2020
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08Jun

UK. Regulator repeats anti-scam warning as £5m lost to fraud

The Pensions Regulator has repeated its warning about scams after a report showed more than £5m has been lost to fraud since February. According to research carried out by Action Fraud the number of fraud cases total more than 2,100 in the past five months, with losses to fraudulent activity amounting to £5,142,265. Pension scams were amongst the most common type of fraud with fraudsters tricking victims into transferring their pension pots to criminals or releasing funds. Commenting on...

June 8, 2020
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05Jun

The Political Economy of Pension Financialisation

By Anke Hassel, Tobias Wiß The Political Economy of Pension Financialisation addresses – for numerous countries – how and why pension reforms have come to rely more on financial markets, how public policy reacted to financial crises, and regulatory variation. The book demonstrates how the process of pension financialisation reveals that pension policy is not only a social policy that affects retirement income, but also a financial policy that impacts savings rates, corporate finance and the economy. The chapters...

June 5, 2020
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05Jun

US. Making Sense Of The Supreme Court Ruling On Private-Sector Pensions

A Supreme Court decision this week on employer pensions? Yes, indeed. The ruling itself Earlier this week, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Thole v. U.S. Bank, a case in which two retirees in the U.S. Bank pension plan contended, as part of a class action, that U.S. Bank had violated its fiduciary duty in mismanaging its pension plan from 2007 to 2010, causing its assets to crash. (See Reason and 401K Specialist for summaries.) The plaintiffs...

June 5, 2020
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05Jun

Chile’s pension system is changing for the worse

Chile’s Minister of Finance, Ignacio Briones, gave instructions for changes to laws 18.045 and 18.046, which were originally meant to give more transparency and responsibility to AFP administrators, in other words; keep them honest. Read also South Africa’s Central Bank Rules Out Financing Government The changes are great news for the administrators, but negative news for Chileans and for Felices Y Forrados, a non-regulated stock market tracker, and advisor (for less than $3 a month) to non-professionals that need help...

June 5, 2020
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05Jun

US. Bill to limit pensions for officials convicted of crimes moves forward

Lawmakers moved to restrict pensions for public officials who commit crimes while performing their official duties. Senate Bill 719 passed unanimously from the House Pensions and Retirement Committee on Wednesday. It targets elected government officials convicted of a felony offense connected with their service. Convicted officials could collect only the amount of money they contributed to the retirement system plus interest. Nor could they count unused sick leave accumulated after July 2007 toward their retirement benefits. The bill won’t...

June 5, 2020
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May 2020
29May

US. Department Of Labor Simplifies Electronic Disclosure Requirements For Retirement Plans

For years, employers have struggled to satisfy Department of Labor (DOL) requirements for providing legally required notices and documents to retirement plan participants through electronic means. The DOL itself has long acknowledged that its electronic disclosure regulations were outdated and unnecessarily burdensome for employers. On May 27, the DOL published new regulations that simplify the process for providing legally required notices and documents to retirement plan participants. At a high level, these new regulations provide a safe harbor...

May 29, 2020
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