June 2022
10Jun

U.S. prohibits investors from buying Russian debt, stocks

U.S. investors are prohibited from buying both new and existing debt and equity securities issued by an entity in the Russian Federation, according to new Treasury Department guidance. The guidance released Monday clarifies that executive orders signed this year by President Joe Biden encompass bans on Americans purchasing all Russian debt and Russian company shares. U.S. investors are still allowed to hold Russian securities they already hold and purchasing shares in a U.S. fund that contains Russian debt or equity securities...

June 10, 2022
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10Jun

US. Are Retirement Savings Tax Incentives Leaving the Middle Class Behind?

A new report by the National Institute on Retirement Security highlights the insufficiencies of current tax incentives in ensuring retirement security for the middle class. It includes marginal tax rates, retirement plan participation and income distribution on retirement savings levels as culpable factors. The report, “The Missing Middle: How Tax Incentives for Retirement Savings Leave Middle Class Families Behind,” also offers potential solutions that could enhance retirement security for middle-class families. Saving for retirement is one of the biggest financial challenges...

June 10, 2022
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09Jun

Factors Influencing the Choice of Pension Distribution at Retirement

By Robert L. Clark & Olivia S. Mitchell One of the most important financial decisions that pension participants make concerns how they access their pension assets when they terminate employment with their plan sponsor. Their choices depend both on own preferences and the options offered by their retirement plan. This paper examines both past and future pension withdrawal choices for those with defined benefit and defined contribution pensions, separately. Our data are drawn from a set of pension distribution questions...

June 9, 2022
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09Jun

US. Senate committee approves nominees to Fed, SEC

The Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday advanced a Federal Reserve Board of Governors nominee and two Securities and Exchange Commission nominees. Michael S. Barr, President Joe Biden's nominee as the Fed's vice chairman for supervision, and Jaime E. Lizarraga and Mark T. Uyeda, the president's nominees to the SEC, were each approved by the committee Wednesday. The three nominees testified jointly before the committee in May. Mr. Barr, a law professor at the University of Michigan who served as the Treasury...

June 9, 2022
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08Jun

US. Senators introduce SECURE 2.0 companion

Less than two weeks after releasing a discussion draft, leaders of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee introduced a retirement security bill that will likely serve as a piece of the Senate's SECURE 2.0 package. Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., committee chairwoman, and Richard Burr-R-N.C., the committee's ranking member, introduced the Retirement Improvement and Savings Enhancement to Supplement Healthy Investments for the Nest Egg Act, or RISE & SHINE Act, and said their committee will markup the bill on...

June 8, 2022
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08Jun

US. Corporate Pension Health Continues to Worsen in May

U.S. corporate pension plans ended May with a drop in their aggregate funded status — a simple measure of their financial health. The funded ratio for U.S. corporate pension plans decreased by 0.9 percentage points from April 30 to May 31, according to Wilshire’s May 2022 U.S. corporate pension plans funding report. Specifically, the aggregate funded ratio of the combined assets and liabilities of corporate pension plans sponsored by S&P 500 companies dropped from 98 percent at the end of...

June 8, 2022
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07Jun

US. Bitcoin Or Bulls For My Pension Plan?

In the long run, tokenisation is going to change everything. I suppose, like most people, the most important financial decisions that I make are with respect to retirement savings. Therefore I try to stay abreast of developments in the sector. Hence I note with interest that one of the serious players in this space, Fidelity (the largest retirement plan provider in the U.S.), are launching a 401(k) cryptocurrency product. Roughly 23,000 companies use Fidelity to administer their retirement plans, and...

June 7, 2022
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06Jun

US. Pension Funds Push for More Disclosure Rules for Private-Equity, Hedge Funds

Pension plans and other institutional investors are embracing a federal proposal that would force hedge funds and private-equity funds to provide more disclosures to investors. University endowments, insurance funds and retirement funds serving teachers and firefighters are urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to move forward with a proposed rule that would ensure private-fund investors receive annual audits and quarterly statements. The rule, which has been heavily criticized by the private funds and Republicans, would also prohibit fund managers from...

June 6, 2022
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03Jun

Markets and Mandates: Retirement in Chile and the United States

By Manisha Padi Ordinary Americans are accustomed to a strict separation between private markets and public-benefits programs. Government programs, such as Social Security for retirees, disburse benefits to households without regard to the private options available to them. Conversely, private-market regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, make rules about private retirement savings without accounting for public retirement benefits. The result is a disjointed experience for American retirees, whose public benefits are restricted by the Social Security Administration but whose...

June 3, 2022
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03Jun

How the U.S. retirement system shortchanges the middle class

America has a vast and elaborate system of public policies supposedly designed to help us all save for retirement and avoid the catastrophe of a penurious and poverty-stricken old age. But does this system end up shortchanging the middle class that is the backbone of the country and the economy? That’s the accusation of a new report from the National Institute for Retirement Security, a nonpartisan think-tank. It’s hard to argue they’re wrong. Read also Governance Issues Loom Over US Pension...

June 3, 2022
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