October 2018

30Oct

It’s Never Too Soon: Retirement Planning for Millennials

Millennials are in a bind, squeezed by changing workplace opportunities and massive student debts. To get on the right path to build their wealth, they should follow these four steps. Much has been written about the shaky financial health of Millennials, most notably that they are lagging behind other generations in personal net worth and falling behind in their retirement savings. This is due less to the popular belief of excessive spending and an alleged aversion for saving money, and...

October 30, 2018
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30Oct

US. Pension Funds Point Finger at Lobbyists of Polluting Companies

A group of pension funds that control $2 trillion are pushing for 55 large European energy, mining and transportation companies to scale back their anti-climate lobbying. Sweden’s AP7, Legal & General Group Plc, the Church of England’s pension fund and Robeco of the Netherlands wrote to the chairman of each company, asking them not to use organizations that try to ease governments’ environmental rules and to be transparent about their own lobbying. The list of recipients includes 10 oil and...

October 30, 2018
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26Oct

US. New York state sues Exxon Mobil for deceiving investors on climate-regulation risk

Company engaged in fraudulent behavior that went all the way up to ex-CEO Rex Tillerson, who went on to serve as Trump’s first secretary of state New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood has filed a lawsuit against energy giant Exxon Mobil Corp., alleging that it misled investors about the true risks to its business posed by climate-change regulations. The suit comes after a roughly three-year probe and does not charge the company XOM, -1.03% with contributing to climate change as a...

October 26, 2018
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25Oct

MIT Center launches contest to develop new type of retirement plan for the public sector

The MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy will distribute a prize pool of $20,000 to the winners The Golub Center for Finance and Policy (GCFP) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is launching a contest to generate strategic proposals aimed at enhancing retirement plans covering millions of public sector workers across the US. A prize pool of $20,000 will be distributed to the winners who propose the most well-reasoned, prudent and implementable strategies. Everyone is eligible to participate....

October 25, 2018
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23Oct

Here’s how well retirement income systems in Asia Pacific fare

As ageing populations continue to pose a challenge to governments worldwide, policymakers are struggling to balance delivering adequate financial security for their retirees while keeping it sustainable for the economy. Measuring 34 pension systems worldwide, the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index shows that the Netherlands and Denmark (with scores of 80.3 and 80.2 respectively) both offer A-Grade world class retirement income systems, topping the index globally. In Asia Pacific, top performing countries are Australia, Singapore, and New Zealand, scoring 72.6, 70.4,...

October 23, 2018
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19Oct

US. California Public Employees Vote Against Pension-Fund Activism

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System this month said no thank you to pension-fund activism. Government workers unseated Priya Mathur, the sitting Calpers president. She was defeated by Jason Perez, a police-union official who criticized Ms. Mathur’s focus on environmental, social and governance investing, or ESG. Mr. Perez emphasizes the agency’s fiduciary duty to maximize investor returns. Calpers represents almost two million California public employees, retirees and families. Yet it mostly makes headlines for its activism, such as divestiture from...

October 19, 2018
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19Oct

US. Loans could drain U.S. retirement plans by $2.5 trillion

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Americans could dig a $2.5 trillion hole in the country’s retirement system as they fail to pay back loans taken from workplace retirement plans over the next 10 years, according to a new study from Deloitte Consulting. The problem is called “leakage” - borrowing from a 401(k) plan without repaying the money or paying it back so slowly that it disrupts growth. About 40 percent of people borrow from workplace plans. Most repay their loans within five years...

October 19, 2018
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18Oct

AmCham Romania warns new pension law poses risk for budgetary and macroeconomic imbalance

The American Chamber of Commerce in Romania (AmCham), which represents 430 companies, expressed concern in a statement today regarding the significant increase of the social security expenses that the pension law draft, recently approved by the Romanian Government, levies on the general consolidated budget. “We believe that is mandatory for the presentation and consultations around this draft legislation with a major budgetary impact, to include information about the financing sources of the related increases, in accordance with the provisions of...

October 18, 2018
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17Oct

US. Has Connecticut Found A Solution To Underfunded Public Pensions?

Public pensions are underfunded. Okay. I know, I know. We’ve all seen this headline before. Ad nauseum. To add to that, nothing seems to improve. Another year goes by and state employee pensions are still underfunded. The numbers don’t lie: at the close of 2016, the cumulative pension funding deficit stood at $1.4 trillion—the 15thannual increase in pension debt since 2000. It’s not like the states aren’t trying to make up the shortfalls. In fact, contributions to pensions from state...

October 17, 2018
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16Oct

Stars Aligning For Corporate Plans to Take De-Risking Actions

The market volatility experienced in early to mid-October speaks to the importance of plan sponsors having a governance structure and framework in place to effectuate changes to their portfolios in a timely manner when funded levels rise. As we have seen in prior periods, improvements in funded status can dissipate quickly if portfolios are not adjusted to reduce asset and liability mismatches. A well-funded or even fully funded plan can still carry substantial risk for the sponsor if plan...

October 16, 2018
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