February 2022
08Feb

AstraZeneca moves to terminate U.S. pension plan

AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, Wilmington, Del., has announced plans to terminate its U.S. defined benefit plan. The company informed participants in its AstraZeneca Defined Benefit Plan on Jan. 25 of its intention to terminate the plan, according to a statement emailed by AstraZeneca's media relations team. The termination "involves transferring the responsibility for payments, recordkeeping and asset management to a qualified, carefully selected insurance company with expertise in the long-term management of pension benefits," according to the statement. The U.S. defined benefit plan...

February 8, 2022
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04Feb

US. Public pension plans stay on cost-efficient course – NCPERS

Public retirement systems continued to manage expenses in fiscal 2021, with many also reducing their assumed rates of return, according to an annual study released Wednesday by the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems. In fiscal 2021, the pension systems averaged 54 basis points in administrative costs and investment manager fees, down from 60 basis points the year before. Read also U.S. corporate pension plan funding rises slightly in January – 2 reports Systems lowered their assumed rates of returns to...

February 4, 2022
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03Feb

U.S. corporate pension plan funding rises slightly in January – 2 reports

The estimated funding ratio of U.S. corporate pension plans inched upward in January as a drop in liabilities offset sluggish investment returns, two new reports from Wilshire Consulting and Legal & General Investment Management America show. Wilshire's monthly report noted that the aggregate funding ratio for U.S. corporate plans increased by 0.4 percentage points to 95.8% as of Jan. 31 from Dec. 31. The slight increase in funding resulted from a 5-percentage-point decrease in liabilities that was partially offset by...

February 3, 2022
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03Feb

US. Investment Opportunities for DB Plans Moving Forward

As corporate defined benefit  (DB) plans consider market volatility, interest rate movements and cash flow needs, there are certain investments and strategies that investment managers suggest they consider. Adam Levine, investment director of abrdn’s Client Solutions Group in New York City, says funded ratios for corporate DB plans improved quite a bit in 2021 both because of returns and discount rate movements, so more plans are moving into fixed income to protect their funded statuses. Closed or frozen plans, especially,...

February 3, 2022
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01Feb

U.S. public pension funds may turn to more ‘aggressive’ investment, report says

U.S. public pension funds will likely have to switch to more aggressive investment strategies in the coming years to fill funding gaps despite assets held by sovereign investors having grown to record levels amid the 2021 equity market boom, a new report said. On average, the difference between assets and liabilities at U.S. public pension funds, known as the "funded ratio," remains "unsatisfactory" at less than 75%, sovereign investor specialist Global SWF said in a report. To boost returns, many will...

February 1, 2022
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January 2022
28Jan

Managing Misbehavior: Rational Choice in an Uncertain Retirement

By Rene Martel, Jennifer Gongola, sean klein, Avi Sharon Behavioral science has helped encourage better behaviors for many investors who are accumulating savings for retirement. This paper investigates the application of behavioral science to decumulation to help investors make better choices and maintain quality of life in retirement. We conducted a proprietary research study, collecting more than 750 responses from affluent and high-net-worth investors in the United States age 55 and older. The results identify key behavioral influences linked to...

January 28, 2022
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28Jan

The Supreme Court Declines To Establish Pleading Standard For Defined Contribution Plan Excessive Fee Litigation

To the disappointment of many in the ERISA community, the Supreme Court issued a six-page opinion on January 24th that declined to opine on most of the issues that were before the Court in Hughes v. Northwestern University, No. 19-1401 (U.S. Jan. 24, 2022). In a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Sotomayor, in which Justice Barrett took no part, the Court vacated and remanded the Seventh Circuit's decision upholding the dismissal of plaintiffs' claims of excessive recordkeeping and investment...

January 28, 2022
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27Jan

US. SEC proposes expansion of private fund reporting requirements

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday approved proposing rule amendments to expand reporting requirements for large hedge fund and private equity firms. In a 3-1 vote, with the commission's lone Republican, Hester M. Peirce, dissenting, the SEC proposed amendments to its Form PF to require private fund advisers to file reports within one business day of events that indicate significant stress at a fund that could harm investors or signal risk in the broader financial system. Those events include...

January 27, 2022
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26Jan

US. DC Pension Faces Whistleblower Suit Alleging Investment Fee Misreporting, ‘Toxic Culture’

A whistleblower has filed a lawsuit against the District of Columbia Retirement Board alleging that it retaliated against her for saying that the fund wrongly reported investment management fees and was not monitoring private investment agreements. The lawsuit was filed by Erie Sampson, the fund’s general counsel and ethics counselor, in Washington, D.C. on December 30. The lawsuit describes a “toxic culture of fear and retaliation” at DCRB and alleged the pension fund had audit and compliance issues, which could be...

January 26, 2022
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24Jan

Companies’ U.S. Pension Plans Are More Overfunded Than They Have Been in Years

Companies’ U.S. pension plans are more overfunded than they have been in years amid strong equity markets. Those surpluses will likely go up further if long-term corporate bond yields continue to rise, as many of these plans use those yields to value their liabilities. That could prompt finance chiefs to revise their pension strategies. An estimated 40 of the largest 100 U.S. pension plans were funded at 100% or more in 2021, the most since 2007, and up from 16 in...

January 24, 2022
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