August 2021

Pakistan’s unsustainable public pension system

In the last ten years, while Pakistan’s tax revenues increased by 2.7 times, the pension bill from the federal government, which includes military pensions (36 percent of the total annual pension liabilities), increased by 5.2 times. The local toll is said to be even higher, with numbers estimated at 7.1 times. Since 2013, numbers of government retirees have increased by 25 percent; however, the pension expense has increased by 432 percent from Rs 55 billion to Rs 238 billion. This does not...

Finland tops global pension rankings

Finland's pension system has ranked number one in the world in 2021 while the UK has fallen “short of the mark”, ranking 25th out of 33 countries included in analysis by Blacktower Financial Management. The analysis used key metrics to analyse pension systems around the world, including public spending, average retirement ages, average pension contributions and the percentage of the population who have participated in pension schemes. Finland was deemed to have the best pension system in the world, recording high...

Sustainability, not size, is vital for growth

Research into economic growth has a long and distinguished history, but the recent introduction of sustainability into the debate has given the field a necessary and overdue shake-up. In particular, a report on the economics of biodiversity, commissioned by the UK government and led by Partha Dasgupta of the University of Cambridge, represents a tectonic shift in thinking, rather than only a logical extension of previous growth models. While this may be unsettling to some, it provides a great...

Access, participation and income: The state of retirement plan coverage in the U.S.

A study from The Inclusive Wealth Building Initiative starkly illustrates the gulf between those employees with access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan and those who participate—and, perhaps unsurprisingly, much of that participation depends on income levels. The Initiative, a project of The Economic Innovation Group, derived its data from various surveys, including the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation and the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ National Compensation Survey. The study also used the 2019 Current Population Survey’s Annual...

July 2021

US. Financial Groups, Firms Push for a Biden Order on Retirement Security

Financial services firms and policy groups are urging President Joe Biden to issue an executive order to create an inter-agency task force on retirement security as part of his Build Back Better initiative. “Social Security and Medicare face financing shortfalls, while pension plans have largely disappeared for younger workers,” the 31 organizations, all partners in the Funding Our Future coalition, told Biden in a letter, released Wednesday. Read also US. Ohio Pensioners May Hold The Key To Finally Fixing America’s Struggling...

Can Climate Change Impact Your Retirement?

Recent fires, floods, and extreme heat events are demonstrating that climate change is here—now—not some day in the distant future. How could that realization impact your retirement plans? Any concern you might feel about climate change could depend in part on your age. A recent survey conducted by the Society of Actuaries (SOA), titled “Financial Perspectives on Aging and Retirement Across the Generations,” takes a deeper look into the topic and provides insights into how different generations view the importance...

China pensions starved of alternatives to stabilise returns

By Twinkle Zhou Experts warn that Beijing must take even speedier action to help its rapidly aging population save enough for retirement. In particular, the country’s regulators need to diversify the range of assets available for local pension funds into more alternative assets, to help them ensure more consistently high annual investment returns. Read also China to allow tax deductions for care of small children to help boost births Pension experts say the government and regulators do not lack for areas they...

Average German pension has risen 34 percent in 10 years

Average pensions in Germany have increased significantly over the past 10 years, RND reports, citing figures from the Deutsche Rentenversicherung. Accordingly, 10 years ago, newly-retired people who had contributed to social security for at least 35 years received an average of 962 euros per month. Most recently in 2020, someone entering retirement who had contributed for the same length of time received an average of 1.290 euros per month - 34 percent more than in 2010. In the western federal...

Japan´s EPSF plots to build a financial system that supports sustainability

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced Japan’s aims for carbon neutrality and substantially zero CO2 emissions by 2050, in his October 2020 policy speech. He also announced at the climate change summit held in April 2021 that Japan aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 46% in FY2030 from its FY2013 levels. In order to achieve these types of environmental goals, many major countries consider that large scale of private funds would be required for the transition towards such new...

UK. Can CDCs solve the pension funding problem?

Defined-benefit (DB) pension schemes have been in decline for years and in most professions younger employees are offered defined-contribution (DC) schemes, which lack many of the former's benefits. But a new option aims to deliver the best of both types of pensions. This week, the government has issued a consultation on draft legislation for Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) Schemes, spurred on by Royal Mail (RMG) which had been lobbying for new legislation to accommodate CDCs since 2018. CDC pensions work by...