December 2018

17Dec

US. Shareholders call on ExxonMobil to set greenhouse gas reduction targets

A number of institutional investors in ExxonMobil Corp (XOM.N) have said they will file a shareholder resolution which calls on the world’s largest oil company to set targets for lowering its greenhouse gas emissions. The call, led by the New York State Common Retirement Fund (NYSCRF) and the Church Commissioners of England (CCE), comes in the wake of shareholder moves at other major energy firms seeking to make them more responsive to climate change and its impact on the business. The...

December 17, 2018
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16Dec

Informing Retirement Savings Decisions: A Field Experiment on Supplemental Plans

By Robert L. Clark (North Carolina State University - Poole College of Management), Robert G. Hammond (North Carolina State University), Melinda Sandler Morrill (North Carolina State University - Department of Economics), Christelle Khalaf (North Carolina State University) Although supplemental saving plans can be an important part of an individual's financial security in retirement, contribution rates remain low, particularly among those with lower salaries and less education. We report findings from an intervention that provided information on key aspects of the...

December 16, 2018
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13Dec

US. Why millions of seniors are still working past the age of 65

Retiring comfortably at 65 is now out of reach for millions of Americans. Tom Coomer was a machinist at the aerospace manufacturer McDonnell Douglas for 29 years, but the plant closed one year before he was due to get his full pension. Now 80 years old, he works as a greeter five days a week at a Walmart in Oklahoma. While Coomer and his wife have downsized their lifestyle, it's still hard for them to make ends meet. They're just...

December 13, 2018
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13Dec

US. Pension Risk Transfer Volume Falls

A LIMRA analyst sees strong demand for small and midsize deals. U.S. life insurers reported a small drop in pension plan buyout annuity sales in the third quarter. Pension risk transfer sales fell to $6.3 billion, down from $6.4 billion in the third quarter of 2017, according to survey data from the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute. The institute bases the survey results on data from 16 companies that share information about their sales of large, single-premium group annuity contracts. Pension risk transfer volume...

December 13, 2018
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12Dec

US. No, Retirement Plan Participation Isn’t Plummeting

This week the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA) published a short article claiming that “New Data Shows Drop in Retirement Coverage for All Income Levels,” contributing to the narrative that Americans face a “retirement crisis” that government must step in to address. In reality, the article should have been titled “Bad Data Show Drop in Retirement Coverage for All Income Levels,” because the decline in retirement plan coverage reported by SCEPA is almost surely a problem with...

December 12, 2018
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11Dec

US. Saving Infrastructure and Pensions at Once? That’s Ambitious

A plan to sell $300 billion of 40-year bonds only to pension funds cuts out too many investors. Every politician in Washington loves infrastructure, in theory. Nancy Pelosi said in October that one of her goals was to “build the infrastructure of America from sea to shining sea.” President Donald Trump has promised to “build gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways and waterways all across our land.” Yet time and again, details end up derailing any efforts to fix what’s...

December 11, 2018
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10Dec

US. 401(k) plans are 40 years old. To celebrate, here’s a look at how they could be better

It's clear that 401(k) plans have been huge successes in the 40 years since they were authorized, amassing more than $5 trillion in assets and becoming investment mainstays for millions of Americans through workplace-benefit programs. But 401(k) plans and similar defined-contribution programs haven't worked out well for everyone, and criticisms linger. As the 401(k) concept marks the 40th birthday from its creation in the Revenue Act of 1978, here's a look at some of the shortcomings: These programs aren't pensions Perhaps the...

December 10, 2018
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06Dec

US. Pensions Are a Hot Recruiting Tool in Health Care: Cerulli

Many hospitals' DB plans are not as well-funded as other corporate pensions, Cerulli reports. Even as most organizations have moved away from defined benefit plans in favor of defined contribution plans, not so health and hospital systems. Instead, according to research from Cerulli Associates, some within the health care industry that are having a rough time attracting and hanging onto talent are looking to leverage pensions as a recruitment tool. “While corporations are generally moving toward defined contribution plan offerings, health and...

December 6, 2018
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05Dec

Who Wins The Retirement Game?

On the plane to a family Thanksgiving a nice seatmate asked what kind of work I do (as she watched me struggle with a spreadsheet). I brightly told her I am an economics professor working to expand pensions to solve the retirement crises. She looked at me blankly and said, "I'm Canadian, we don't have these problems. That stopped me short. Really? Canada? Has the friendly nation to the north figured it out? Canada has been described, in jest of course,...

December 5, 2018
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November 2018

09Nov

US. Wells Fargo considering sale of retirement-plan unit

is considering the sale of its retirement-plan services business, according to people familiar with the matter. The unit could fetch as much as $1 billion, said one person, who asked to not be identified because the matter isn't public. The people said deliberations are at an early stage and the bank may decide to keep the business, which offers record-keeping, trust, custody and other retirement-plan services to corporations. A representative for Wells Fargo declined to comment on the potential sale. Wells Fargo,...

November 9, 2018
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