May 2024

This retirement planning gap is ‘hidden in plain sight,’ Harvard professor says

For many people, retirement planning is all about money: how to invest, how much to save, when to claim Social Security, how to best withdraw from accounts. Finances in retirement are an acute fear. About 2 in 3 people worry more about running out of money than about death, according to a recent poll by Allianz Life. Yet, there's a notable lack of attention and concern given to the social aspect of retirement, experts said. It's a facet of retirement planning that's almost "hidden in plain sight," said Robert...

The world’s largest pension fund may be running dry

A population equaling the size of the entire U.S. will retire from China's workforce by 2035, and the country isn't reproducing sufficiently to mend its fraying social safety net Fifty-eight-year-old Li Zhong, a traditional-Chinese-medicine salesman, retires in two years and doesn't fret about his pension. It's his daughter he is worried about. He recently took out a mortgage to help her buy a house in a Shanghai suburb. China's housing bubble burst in 2021, and prices are at their lowest levels...

UK Pension Fund Market Expected to Reach USD 5.22 Trillion by 2029

The "UK Pension Fund - Market Share Analysis, Industry Trends & Statistics, Growth Forecasts 2020 - 2029" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The UK Pension Fund Market size in terms of assets under management value is expected to grow from USD 4.25 trillion in 2024 to USD 5.22 trillion by 2029, at a CAGR of 4.22% during the forecast period (2024-2029). UK Pension Fund Market Trends Ageing population rate in United Kingdom affecting United Kingdom Pension Funds Market As a country's population grows, there is...

Nigeria. Pension assets declines amid low patronage

Pension assets have fallen by N90 billion in the first quarter of the year, from N19.75 trillion to N19.66 trillion at the end of the first quarter (Q1), a situation attributed to low market patronage. The report was contained in data released by the National Pension Commission (PenCom) on their website. Explaining further, the report stated that the equities market attracted N2.3 trillion of the fund, having risen from N1.77 trillion in December 2023. The development, according to PenCom, translated to N530...

China’s savings rate hurts model for growing investments — PAG chair

Looking at the Chinese economy, alternative investment firm PAG doesn’t look at the trendiest sectors as investment opportunities. Instead, when the Hong Kong-based manager sees them, it knows “which sectors to avoid,” said Weijian Shan, executive chair. “Let’s say that whatever sector is hot, we typically stay away from because China is a capital-rich country,” he told attendees at the SALT iConnections New York 2024 conference on May 20. Shan described the country’s savings rate as “on a league of its...

The Incidence of Workplace Pensions: Evidence from the Uk’s Automatic Enrollment Mandate

By Rachel Scarfe, Daniel Schaefer & Tomasz Sulka We examine who bears the costs of mandated workplace pension programs, exploiting the quasi-experimental rollout of automatic enrollment in the UK. Total compensation (take-home pay plus employer contributions) increases, driven by employer contributions, while the amount of take-home pay decreases. These effects differ by employer size, with take-home pay declining to an extent in the largest firms that we can rule out a pass-through to employees of more than 47%, significantly less...

The stunning financial benefits of working just one year longer

By Jordan Rosenfeld   By the time you reach your mid-fifties you might already be looking ahead to that wonderful day when you can retire, even if it’s a decade away. It’s natural to feel a sense of urgency when you’ve been working a long time and, by the time you hit 60, you might barely be able to contain yourself from jumping ship at 62 — the earliest age you can take Social Security. However, according to Chris Urban — a CFP and...

UK. Retirement warning as global ‘market volatility’ could hurt ‘value of pensions’

Older Britons are being warned that recent global events could be impacting the “value of some pensions”. Experts from PensionBee are urging pensioners to take action to make sure their retirement savings are protected. This warning comes amid the widespread implementation of artificial intelligence technology, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and upcoming elections in the US and UK. As well as this, those approaching retirement have been saddled with rising interest rates and inflation-hiked prices. A consequence of this has been that many older Britons are not able...

The ‘father of the 401(k)’ talks about the death of pensions, the future of retirement, and what disturbs him about his own creation

Americans have a lot of anxiety around retirement. Many people are dipping into their nest eggs to make ends meet amid soaring inflation, some boomers aren’t prepared to leave the workforce as they enter their golden years, and people are increasingly working past the typical retirement age. The most popular method for workers to save for retirement is the 401(k), which allows employees without employer-backed pensions to independently contribute to their own retirement savings, often with employer matching. But it’s not right for everyone, and the man who...

April 2024

Job losses has Nigerians turn to pensions for lifeline

Pension savings have become an immediate lifeline for Nigerians as rising unemployment forced more people to draw on their balances for day-to-day expenses. This development has seen workers in both the public and private sectors who lost their jobs fall back on pension savings to survive current economic hardships. Data from the National Pension Commission shows that at the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, a total 10,307 Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders, otherwise called contributors, requested to access 25 percent of their balances...