May 2019

07May

Higher Risk Not Translating to Similar Returns for U.S. Pensions

U.S. state and local pensions have taken on riskier asset allocations in recent years, though the rate of return is paling compared with the higher risk according to Fitch Ratings in a new report. State and local pension plans have steadily increased their allocations to equities and alternatives such as real estate, private equity, hedge funds and commodities over the last several years. Asset allocation to both equities and alternative investments rose to 77% in 2017 from 67% in...

May 7, 2019
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06May

Pre-Retirement Market Volatility Looks Very Different In Retirement

There’s plenty for investors to worry about when their financial livelihood is on the line. When planning for major financial decisions such as retirement, individuals often focus on the severity of a market downturn, underestimating the impact that timing and cash flows can have on their portfolio. The sequence of returns risk is the impact the order of investment returns can have on your portfolio. As individuals move from the asset accumulation stage of their life to withdrawing assets...

May 6, 2019
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02May

US. Bill Would Deny U.S. Pensions to Convicted Child Molesters

A U.S. senator is seeking to ban convicted child molesters from receiving government pensions after a U.S. Indian Health Service doctor was revealed to be drawing a six-figure retirement income following his conviction for sexually abusing patients. The Wall Street Journal and the PBS series Frontline reported in March that the doctor, longtime Indian Health Service pediatrician Stanley Patrick Weber, stood to get more than $1.8 million in U.S. pension payments during his prison sentence, which began in September....

May 2, 2019
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April 2019

29Apr

Millions of Americans are working past 65, and it’s not because they can’t afford to retire

More retirement-age Americans, mostly baby boomers, are working today than ever before, but it's not because they need the money. The largest increase in people working past 65 has been among those in the best shape for retirement: highly educated people with high incomes, says Lincoln Plews, a research analyst at United Income. The biggest reason for working longer? They're healthier than they've ever been. Not all baby boomers are itching to retire. The greatest share of older Americans...

April 29, 2019
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29Apr

Understanding Job Transitions and Retirement Expectations Using Stated Preferences for Job Characteristics

By Nicole Maestas (Harvard Medical School - Department of Health Care Policy), Kathleen J. Mullen (RAND Corporation), David Powell (RAND Corporation), Till Von Wachter (University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) - Department of Economics), Jeffrey B. Wenger (RAND Corporation; American University - School of Public Affairs) As the population ages in the United States and other countries, encouraging older individuals to work would help counter increasing dependency ratios and improve national economic outcomes. Extending working lives is likely not simply...

April 29, 2019
Aging, Articles, Labor Market,
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26Apr

Morgan Stanley to pay $130 million to California pensions over bad investments

One of the world’s largest investment banks has agreed to put $130 million into the nation’s biggest public pension system to settle accusations it knowingly sold bad investments that caused the retirement fund for millions of workers to lose money. California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra announced the settlement with Morgan Stanley on Thursday. The bank is to pay $150 million. Of that, $122 million will go to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, known as CalPERS, and $8 million...

April 26, 2019
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25Apr

Are Americans overly confident about retirement?

Americans are more optimistic than they’ve been in years about life in retirement. Yet one question remains: Will they have enough money? According to a new study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, confidence among U.S. workers has rebounded to pre-recession levels, with 67% saying they are very or somewhat confident they’ll be able to live comfortably throughout retirement. And, among those already out of the workforce, 82% are confident they will have enough money to live comfortably in retirement,...

April 25, 2019
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24Apr

US Corporate Pension Funding Ratio Rises to 87.1% in 2018

The funded ratio of the 100 largest US corporate pension plans rose to 87.1% in 2018 from 85.8% at the end of 2017, despite investment losses of 2.8%—the worst asset performance since 2008, according to consulting firm Milliman. “This was the first time in our study’s history that we had a negative asset return and yet corporate pension funding improved,” Zorast Wadia, co-author of Milliman’s Pension Funding Study (PFS), said in a release. The investment losses reduced plan assets...

April 24, 2019
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18Apr

US. Small Business Owners Need a Nudge to Offer Retirement Plans

Data gathered by SCORE, a nonprofit provider of mentor services to U.S. small businesses, shows that 34% of small business owners do not have retirement savings plans for themselves, and the fewer employees a business has, the less likely it is to offer a retirement plan for its employees. Only 28% of businesses with fewer than 10 employees offer retirement plans for employees, 51% of businesses with 10 to 24 employees offer retirement plans, and 63% of businesses with 25 to 49...

April 18, 2019
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17Apr

US. Here’s What Public Pension Funds Can Do To Protect Against Insolvency

The severity of the pension crisis is quite clear at this point because news and data about it are widely available. However, one thing that hasn’t been prevalent is potential solutions to the problem. Public pensions are starting to put their proverbial heads together to tackle this major issue, but so far, efforts have generally not been enough to protect even the largest pension funds from potential insolvency. Now one organization has examined the pension crisis as it applies...

April 17, 2019
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