February 2019

14Feb

US. Retirement In America Is Too Expensive, But It Doesn’t Have To Be

In a recent survey, Legg Mason found that a 32% of Americans are “very confident” that they will have enough money for a comfortable retirement. That same study finds that retirement confidence falls sharply as Americans approach retirement and really understand just how expensive it is to retire – that is, exactly how much money must be saved that will last through retirement. In contrast, just 17% of Baby Boomers who have retired or are approaching retirement are very...

February 14, 2019
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13Feb

US. Police Pension Backs Morgan Creek’s plans to invest in cryptocurrency

Police officers and other state employees in Virginia’s Fairfax County will be looking forward to retirement with potential dividends from an unusual source: bitcoin. Two separate pension funds that collectively manage $5.1 billion in assets for the state’s police force and other employees have joined a $40 million investment in the Morgan Creek Blockchain Opportunities Fund, which in addition to backing some of the best-known startups in the space, plans to invest in cryptocurrency. Already, a portion of the...

February 13, 2019
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13Feb

US. Bosses, Beware! You’re Legally at Risk Over High 401(k) Plan Fees

Yes, CEOs have a fiduciary responsibility to their employees, and if they fail to fulfill it, the employees can sue. And win. A good 401(k) plan can be an amazing tool for helping to build your retirement nest egg. Most companies offer at least some level of employer match, and the tax deferral is a great perk. But if your 401(k) options come larded with excessive fees, it's a whole different story. In this segment from the Motley Fool...

February 13, 2019
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12Feb

First U.S. Pension Funds Take the Plunge on Crypto Investing

Morgan Creek Digital has scored what it says is probably the first investment in the crypto asset universe from a U.S. pension fund. Two pension plans in Fairfax County, Virginia are anchor investors in a new $40 million venture-capital fund, according to a statement from the company. Other investors include an insurance company, a university endowment and a private foundation, said Morgan Creek Digital founder Anthony Pompliano, who declined to provide further details. Many institutional investors, which crypto enthusiasts...

February 12, 2019
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08Feb

America’s public pension plans make over-optimistic return assumptions

Promising a pension is a long-term and expensive business, especially if the payout is linked to earnings. But whether the employer is private or public, the cost ought to be the same in the long run and so, you might assume, would be the investment approach. Until 2008 that was true for American pension plans: private and public-sector schemes had roughly the same asset allocation. But a new report by Jean-Pierre Aubry and Caroline Crawford of the Centre for...

February 8, 2019
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07Feb

US. Retirement Security Bill Re-Introduced In Congress

More U.S. workers would get opportunities to participate in an employer-provided retirement under a bipartisan retirement security bill introduced today in the U.S. House of Representatives. The measure contains several provisions which the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) has long-supported and advocated for enactment. Known as the Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act, the bill was initially introduced in previous session. It was re-introduced by Reps. Ron Kind, D-Wisc., and Mike Kelly, R-Pa., as the House Ways and Means Committee conducted...

February 7, 2019
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03Feb

State Automatic Enrollment IRAs After the Trump Election: Are They Preempted by ERISA?

By Kathryn L. Moore (University of Kentucky College of Law) In recent years, a number of states have sought to close the retirement savings funding gap by enacting legislation mandating that employers that do not sponsor a voluntary pension plan for their employees automatically enroll their employees in a state-administered IRA program. This article focuses on the most serious legal challenge these programs face: ERISA preemption.  The article begins by providing an overview of the state automatic enrollment IRA programs....

February 3, 2019
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01Feb

US. New York Imposes $19.75 Million in Fines in Pension Risk Transfer Case

The New York State Department of Financial Services is imposing $19.75 million in fines on Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, a unit of MetLife Inc., in connection with allegations of pension plan administration problems. MetLife agreed to pay the fines, pay $189 million in restitution to affected pension plan participants in New York state and elsewhere, and develop proposals for ways it could do better in the future in a consent order. Michel Khalaf, the president of MetLife’s U.S. business,...

February 1, 2019
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January 2019

31Jan

US. Lockheed to offload $1.8 billion in pension risks to Prudential

Lockheed Martin Corp, the Pentagon’s top weapons supplier, said on Tuesday it would transfer $1.8 billion in pension obligations to U.S. life insurer Prudential Financial Inc to reduce the risk and costs of pensions. Prudential will assume responsibility for pension benefits of around 32,000 former Lockheed employees as part of the agreement. U.S. companies such as Accenture, General Motors, Verizon and Kimberly-Clark have been offloading their pension obligations to insurance companies to cut down on costs and reduce the...

January 31, 2019
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29Jan

Serbian pensioners risk poverty less than many in EU

Pensioners are at risk of poverty in Europe, according to Eurostat data, while the number of those living on edge of poverty is growing. According to EU's statistical agency's analysis covering 2017, pensioners at risk of poverty in the European Union was estimated to be 14.2 percent, slightly above the figure of 13.8 percent in 2016. The rate has been rising gradually since 2013, when it was 12.6 percent, the organization has announced. Outside the EU, candidate country Serbia...

January 29, 2019
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