May 2022

US. Allianz subsidiary pleads guilty over a $7 billion investment implosion.

The German insurance firm Allianz will pay more than $6 billion over the implosion of a group of hedge funds two years ago that stuck public pensions, religious organizations, foundations and other investors with heavy losses. Read also US. DoL Urged to Help Pension Plans Make Climate Impact An American subsidiary of the insurer, Allianz Global Investors U.S., pleaded guilty Tuesday to securities fraud for failing to stop the scheme, which came to light after the funds collapsed early in the...

How Healthcare Costs Can Affect Retirement Planning

People in their 50s, 60s and 70s wear many hats: taking care of elderly parents, financially supporting grown children, working full- or part-time and volunteering in their communities—all while managing their growing healthcare needs. Baby boomers have redefined retirement, and today it looks completely different than it did a generation ago. There are reasons for that: People who are of retirement age now face a greater number of post-work years because we’re living longer. Retirement might last decades. Americans who...

Why are millennials better at saving than their parents?

Millennials started saving for retirement in their mid-20s, about 10 years earlier than baby boomers, a new Charles Schwab report says. But experts still predict that millennials will be less secure in retirement than their parents or grandparents. The most common retirement plans today tend to be riskier, with smaller potential payouts. Student loans, soaring housing costs, COVID-19, recessions and gig working are some of the other challenges millennials have faced. Millennials are now the world’s largest adult generation...

US. Trade groups say DOL shouldn’t single out climate risk

Two high-profile trade associations have cautioned the Department of Labor from issuing new climate-specific regulations for retirement plan fiduciaries. The Labor Department in February issued a request for information on what it should do to "protect retirement savings and pensions from risks associated with changes in climate." The RFI follows a May 2021 executive order from President Joe Biden that directed federal agencies to assess and mitigate financial risks related to climate change. The RFI featured a host of questions on...

What Share of Noncovered Public Employees Will Earn Benefits that Fall Short of Social Security?

What Share of Noncovered Public Employees Will Earn Benefits that Fall Short of Social Security?

By Jean-Pierre Aubry, Siyan Liu, Alicia H. Munnell, Laura Quinby & Glenn Springstead Social Security is designed to serve as the base of retirement support, to be supplemented by employer-sponsored plans. However, approximately one-quarter of state and local government employees – currently, around 5 million workers annually – are not covered by Social Security on their current job. Federal law allows these noncovered workers to remain outside of Social Security if their state or local plan provides comparable benefits. Since...

US. State pension funding soars to 83.3% in fiscal year 2021 – Wilshire

U.S. state pension plans' estimated aggregate funding ratio at the end of fiscal year 2021 jumped to 83.3% from 70% in the previous year, a report from Wilshire Advisors shows. Based on more than 100 state plans' most recent annual reports, most of which provide data as of June 30, the aggregate funding ratio is based on $3.957 trillion in aggregate assets and $4.752 trillion in aggregate pension liabilities, according to Wilshire's 2022 Report on State Retirement Systems. Asset levels rose...

Russia-Ukraine War Has U.S. Pensions Examining Long-Term Investment Sustainability

Russia´s invasion of Ukraine has caused  U.S. pension plan sponsors to focus on the long-term sustainability of their plan’s investments. U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia have caused U.S.-based pension funds to divest from or suspend allocations to the emerging market’s assets. But this will have narrow impacts to defined benefit plans’ risk and return outlooks, according to pension investment experts. “For most of our clients, their exposure to Russian securities is very small,” says David Eisenberg, outsourced chief investment officer leader at Buck. Many pension plans...

US. Companies Race to Offload Pension Risk as Market Volatility Rises

The market for pension risk transfers is booming. In the first quarter of 2022, U.S. pension risk transfers reached $5.5 billion in total market volume, marking its largest quarter to date, according to Legal & General Retirement America’s pension risk transfer monitor. A PRT deal happens when a retirement provider — usually a corporate pension plan sponsor — unloads a portion of (or all) of its liabilities to an insurance company. Beth Ashmore, managing director of retirement at Willis Towers Watson,...

US. EBRI: Challenges Aside, Retirement Confidence Remains High

Despite the pandemic and inflation, American workers and retirees remain optimistic about living a comfortable retirement—and one key factor that has helped is having a workplace retirement savings plan. This is according to the 32nd annual Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS) measuring worker and retirement confidence conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Greenwald Research. In fact, in 2022, 82% of workers who are offered a workplace retirement savings plan are satisfied with it—a finding that has remained steady...

US. Another crypto issue: Is there really demand?

The big question now for cryptocurrency investing in defined contribution plans is how amenable sponsors, participants and consultants will be to accepting these offerings to augment retirement savings. Even before Fidelity Investments announced a program that would let participants invest up to 20% of their 401(k) accounts in cryptocurrency, NEPC LLC detected a "meaningful increase from clients asking for education on crypto within 401(k) plans," William Ryan, Chicago-based partner and head of defined contribution plan solutions at the investment consultant,...