March 2020

18Mar

BlackRock Converts Money Market Portfolio to Environmental Fund

BlackRock is converting its BlackRock Money Market Portfolio to the BlackRock Wealth Liquid Environmentally Aware Fund (WeLEAF), which the firm says is the first environmentally aware money market product dedicated for the US wealth market. Read also LGIM to launch its first fossil fuel-free pension fund after pressure “Client interest in our LEAF series has revealed tremendous demand for sustainable liquidity management,” Thomas Callahan, BlackRock’s head of global cash management, said in statement. “WeLEAF was designed to answer...

March 18, 2020
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10Mar

US. Retirement plans and the coronavirus: What moves do you make?

Linda is in a panic. She’s a 65-year-old divorcée who knew she had a very risky investment strategy for her age. She’s recently retired and receives about $1,300 in Social Security. Financial support she is receiving from an ex will end next year. All was going well until the coronavirus outbreak sent stock markets around the world tumbling. Linda has 100 percent of her retirement money invested in equities. She has a home and about $60,000 in cash, which is...

March 10, 2020
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09Mar

Reverse Mortgages, Financial Inclusion, and Economic Development: Potential Benefit and Risks

By Peter Knaack, Margaret Miller, Fiona Stewart This paper examines the state of reverse mortgage markets in selected countries around the world and considers the potential benefits and risks of these products from a financial inclusion and economic benefit standpoint. Despite potentially increasing demand from aging societies -- combined with limited pension income -- a series of market failures constrain supply and demand. The paper discusses a series of market failures on the supply side, such as adverse selection,...

March 9, 2020
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09Mar

World Bank: Overcoming Major Barriers in U.S. Reverse Mortgage Market

Reverse mortgages have significant potential in serving aging parts of the global population, and can allow more seniors to make financial ends meet in retirement since loan proceeds can be applied to a multitude of scenarios. However, some key market realities and roadblocks with universal application to multiple parts of the world have kept reverse mortgages from flourishing in both well- and under-developed economies alike. This is according to a newly-published policy paper authored by researchers Peter Knaak, Margaret Miller...

March 9, 2020
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07Mar

Understanding Debt in the Older Population

By Annamaria Lusardi, Olivia S. Mitchell, Noemi Oggero Poor financial capability can have important consequences for wellbeing in later life. To explore aspects of financial management related to debt, we have designed and analyzed a new module in the 2018 Health and Retirement Study (HRS). We use these new data, along with information from the 2018 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS), to evaluate the factors associated with debt and debt management close to retirement. We show that a sizeable...

March 7, 2020
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06Mar

DC Plan Assets Funneling Into Target Date Funds

Target-date funds have substantially grown in popularity within employer-sponsored defined contribution retirement plans, according to a survey released Wednesday by NEPC, an independent investment consulting firm. As of the end of 2019, 39% of assets in defined contribution plans were in target date funds while only 22% were in 2010. The number of plans offering target date fund investment options has remained steady at 96% of plans, said the “Defined Contribution Plan & Fee Survey” by Boston-based NEPC. Ross...

March 6, 2020
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05Mar

US. Fragile Retirement Funds Tested by Market Volatility, Bond Yields

The list of institutions challenged by the impact of the coronavirus now includes America’s pension funds. State and local government retirement systems face the difficult task of trying to plug funding gaps while protecting against investment losses. The past two weeks of falling bond yields and heightened stock-market volatility have made that job even more complicated. Pension funds have for years been piling into stocks to try to reduce shortfalls after a decadeslong slide in bond yields slashed the...

March 5, 2020
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03Mar

US. On Social Security benefits, Biden just came around to the increases Sanders has backed for decades

By Mark Weisbrot The biggest demographic divide in the current Democratic primary battle for president is not by gender or race, but by age. This is especially true if we accept the view of some analysts that the race is looking like a two-person contest between front-runner Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. In a recent national poll from Survey USA, Sanders showed a commanding lead among younger voters (age 18-34), with 47% to Biden’s 13%. But among senior citizens (65+), Biden...

March 3, 2020
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February 2020

28Feb

Millennial Generation: Information on the Economic Status of Millennial Households Compared to Previous Generations

By Charles A. Jeszeck, Michael J. Collins, Jessica Rider, Kathleen McQueeney, Layla Moughari Recent research indicates that, across three key measures, economic mobility in the United States is limited. Specifically, the Millennial generation (those born between 1982 and 2000) might not have the same opportunity as previous generations had to fare better economically than their parents. According to studies GAO reviewed, the share of people making more money than their parents at the same age (absolute mobility) has declined...

February 28, 2020
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11Feb

US. The Impact of the SECURE Act on Tax Qualified Retirement Plans

On December 20, President Trump signed into law the “Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019,”[1] known and referred to colloquially as the “SECURE Act.” The law’s stated purpose, among other things, is to increase the coverage of American workers in employer-sponsored savings arrangements. The new law generally affects retirement plans and programs that include employer-sponsored and Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), among others. Many of the SECURE Act’s provisions that impact employer-sponsored plans took effect...

February 11, 2020
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