October 2022

Denominator effect causes plans to rethink allocations

A major reason pension funds are rethinking their asset allocations is an increased exposure to private assets — due, largely, to the denominator effect. Pension plans with private investments have seen that part of the portfolio "hold up pretty well vs. public equities and bonds that are down double digits this year," said Sona Menon, Boston-based head of North American pension practice at Cambridge Associates LLC. "This is a combination of what we call the denominator effect — because the...

Aumento en el costo de vida retrasa la jubilación de trabajadores en EE.UU.

Las jubilaciones retrasadas afectan impiden contratar o promover a nuevos talentos en las empresas. Una encuesta realizada por el Nationwide Retirement Institute reveló que cuatro de cada 10 trabajadores estadounidenses en edad de poder jubilarse han optado por seguir laborando, pues el aumento en el costo de vida los ha hecho replantearse lo complicado que podría ser su futuro con el dinero de que les asignaría la Seguridad Social en este momento. Bajo este escenario, las empresas están imposibilitadas de ofrecer...

September 2022

US. Why Small Businesses Are Upping Their Retirement Plan Offerings

Last year was a fantastic for small business growth, and in its 2021 New Business Insights, Intuit QuickBooks predicted as many as 17 million new small businesses would form in 2022. It marks an increment of 2.5% from the previous year and grows to 9.8% in four years, from 2017 to 2021. While it was a great year for starting businesses, it was a not-so-great year for staffing them. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2021, more than...

With Interest Rates Rising, Companies Look to Unload Pension Liabilities

The funding status of defined-benefit pension plans has been lifted by rising interest rates, which are expected to increase further Rising interest rates are boosting corporate pension plans, providing finance chiefs with an option to lighten their companies’ balance sheets and transfer obligations to insurers. The U.S. central bank has raised interest rates five times this year as it battles persistent high inflation, including last week when it opted for the third consecutive 0.75-point interest-rate increase and indicated further rate action. When...

Analysis of American Workers Shows Retirement Plan Type Influences Spending Habits

A new report by the Public Retirement Research Lab and JP Morgan demonstrated that public-sector workers whose primary retirement account is a defined benefit account tend to spend a higher ratio of their earnings than those with a defined contribution account. Read also With Interest Rates Rising, Companies Look to Unload Pension Liabilities The PRRL is a collaboration of the Employee Benefit Research Institute and National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators. They combined their datasets on public employees with defined...

US. How To Help Protect Your Savings From Inflation When You’re Planning For Retirement

With some careful planning, you can mitigate the impact of inflation on your retirement savings. As inflation rises, many preretirees are wondering how they can ensure that their retirement savings will cover their cost of living in the future. For investors who are planning for retirement, the good news is they still have time to make any necessary adjustments. They may even find the plan they have in place is already sufficient to mitigate the impact of inflation. How inflation affects...

US. Fed hikes interest rates 75 basis points; now targets year-end funds rate of 4.4%

The Federal Reserve on Friday agreed to a request from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to return unused funds from emergency lending programs. The Federal Reserve hiked interest rates by 75 basis points for the third consecutive meeting on Wednesday, boosting the target range for the federal funds rate to a range of 3% to 3.25%, in a continuing bid to tamp down inflation. The Federal Open Market Committee, which concluded its two-day meeting on Wednesday, had previously increased rates by 75...

Here’s what an aging workforce means for employers in the U.S.

Covid-19 hit our world like a wrecking ball in 2020. Almost overnight, our businesses and schools closed, our communities went into lockdown, and our economies stalled. But even as we grapple with the fallout of the pandemic, new threats are looming, many of them global in scope. The World Bank warns that stagflation will see growth slump from almost 6% to just 2.9% this year. The war between Russia and Ukraine is undermining the delivery of grain, prompting fears of...

The U.S. retirement system gets a ‘C+’ grade, experts say — even though it’s worth $39 trillion. Here’s why

The U.S. retirement system may seem flush — yet it ranks poorly in relation to those in other developed nations. Collectively, Americans had more than $39 trillion in wealth earmarked for old age at the end of 2021, according to the Investment Company Institute. However, the U.S. places well outside the top 10 on various global retirement rankings from industry players, such as the Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index and Natixis Investment Managers 2021 Global Retirement Index. According to Mercer’s index,...

US. Why Intelligent Aging Should Be Healthcare’s Moonshot

Tom Lawry is the National Director for Artificial Intelligence, Health and Life Sciences at Microsoft. “It’s not how old you are, it’s how you are old.” – Jules Renard, French author. It was the summer of 1965 when Medicare was signed into law, guaranteeing that the federal government would manage the provision and cost of medical care for all seniors. In doing so, President Lyndon Johnson proudly declared: “No longer will older Americans be denied the healing miracle of modern medicine....