August 2021
12Aug

45% of Singaporeans surveyed have not started planning for retirement

This was more apparent in the younger demographic (aged below 35), a survey has noted. Reasons include: 20% of plan to rely on their spouse or family members for it, and 61% are confident they will have sufficient funds for it. More details here. One in three Singaporeans (39%) are worried they will not have enough funds for retirement, yet not many are acting on it, a recent report by Endowus has found. In particular, this was seen more in respondents...

August 12, 2021
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11Aug

US. Pandemic Puts Secure Retirement at Greater Risk for Many

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an outsize effect on people 50 and older: Not only did it impact older adults’ health more severely than younger ones, but it also forced many into early retirement and prompted others to take withdrawals from their savings earlier than they had planned. "The prospects of a secure retirement for millions of workers will be even more precarious following the pandemic, and more Americans of all ages will need to rely even more on Social...

August 11, 2021
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11Aug

Young Americans Are Saving For Retirement Sooner

Need some good news about American retirement? A recent survey by the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies looked at how retirement savings behaviors and expectations have evolved during the Covid-19 pandemic. Some of its findings were grim. Six in 10 respondents said they were concerned about their mental and physical health while the median respondent had just $5,000 in emergency savings. Yet there were also glimmers of hope. More than 80% of respondents saved for retirement during the pandemic, in either employer-sponsored...

August 11, 2021
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July 2021
06Jul

UK. Nearly a third of Gen Xers have inadequate pension savings

Almost one in three Generation Xers — individuals aged between 41 and 56 — have inadequate pension savings and face a minimum-at-best standard of living in retirement, according to research by the International Longevity Centre and Standard Life. The ILC’s ‘Slipping between the cracks’ report found that 60 per cent of Gen Xers in a defined contribution scheme are not contributing enough for financial security or flexibility later in life, while 59 per cent of those with insufficient savings lack...

July 6, 2021
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02Jul

sigma 2/2021 – Emerging markets

By Viola Wang,Jessie Guo, Mahesh H Puttaiah, Caroline De Souza Rodrigues Cabral and Xin Dai Emerging markets worldwide are ageing fast. By 2050, these nations will be home to almost 80% of the world's population aged 65 and above. Yet on average only about 30% of their workers are covered by any sort of formal retirement income scheme. As their old-age-dependency ratios (the population above 65 years old relative to the working-age population of 15 to 64 years old) rise...

July 2, 2021
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June 2021
25Jun

US. American Express boosts auto-enrollment contribution rate to 6% for 401(k) plan

American Express Co., New York, is increasing the amount of automatic enrollment for participants in its 401(k) plan to a before-tax contribution of 6% of total pay, effective Jan. 1, 2022. The company will continue its current policy of an automatic escalation rate of 1% each year until the employee contribution hits 10% of pay, it disclosed in an 11-K filing Wednesday with the SEC. Currently, eligible employees are automatically enrolled to make before-tax contributions of 3% of total pay. The company's...

June 25, 2021
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24Jun

Pension Incentives and Labor Supply: Evidence from the Introduction of Universal Old-Age Assistance in the UK

By Matthias Giesecke, Philipp Jaeger We study the labor supply implications of the Old-Age Pension Act (OPA) of 1908, which, for the first time, provided pensions to older people in the UK. Using recently released census data covering the entire population, we exploit variation at the newly created age-based eligibility threshold. Our results show a considerable and abrupt decline in labor force participation of 6.0 percentage points (13%) when older workers reach the eligibility age of 70. To mitigate the...

June 24, 2021
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23Jun

Australia. Changes to ‘super size’ retirement savings

For the average Australian worker, legislated rises in superannuation will mean an extra $85,000 in their super account at retirement. The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia on Wednesday released a report on how the increases set to kick in from July 1 will "super-size" retirement balances. Super balances are also set for a whopper year of double-digit gains, despite COVID-19 wobbles. The rise in the superannuation guarantee rate to 10 per cent from next month represents an extra $19,000 in a...

June 23, 2021
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09Jun

Pensions industry should use tech to sustain the savings boom

It has been a tough year for many, and experts agree that the economic fallout of 2020 has hit the self-employed particularly hard. But among the bad news stories lurks a glimmer of hope from an unexpected source: the world of private pensions. It certainly has not been smooth sailing – when Covid-19 hit, there was a sharp halt to pension contributions. New sign-ups to our own service dropped by a staggering 90 per cent in the first week of lockdown. However,...

June 9, 2021
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04Jun

Strategy for the Mexican Pension System

By Gabriel Martinez The concepts of benefit adequacy and sustainability are used to lead the discussion to-wards holistic pension reform. The required strategic elements are presented, the reforms underpinning the existing pension system are reviewed, and the evolution of the main variables in a set of reference countries is detailed. The review to other countries serves to identify key points of discussion, lessons and innovative elements. Essential reform proposals are presented. Source: SSRN 580 views

June 4, 2021
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