July 2025
04Jul

US. Asset Gains for 100 Largest Public Pensions Surge $98B in May; PRT Costs Decline

The 100 largest public defined benefit plans in the U.S. raked in $98 billion in asset gains during May thanks to a 2.4% investment gain during the month, according to Milliman’s Public Pension Funding Index. It was the funds’ best monthly market performance in more than a year. The consulting and actuarial firm said the strong gains boosted their estimated funded level to 81.1% from 79.6% a month earlier. It also said that the deficit between the estimated plan assets and liabilities...

July 4, 2025
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02Jul

US Government Reopens Discussion of Private Pension Investments Expectations

The Department of Labor has taken two recent actions that indicate where the approach to retirement investment policy may go under the new administration. Policy on the appropriate management of retirement funds has not been spared the tide of changes in the political landscape. While the language of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) sets the standard for plan fiduciaries to act “solely in the interest of participants and beneficiaries,”1 the practical implications have been caught up in...

July 2, 2025
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02Jul

What the U.S. can learn from Japan’s experience with an aging population

The U.S. population is older than ever, and that trend is accelerating. As baby boomers age and birth rates decline, the country is heading toward a demographic reality that Japan has been grappling with for decades. In Japan, more than one in 10 people is now over the age of 80, and nearly a third of the population is over 65. This marks a dramatic shift that has reshaped healthcare, the economy, city infrastructure, and cultural norms. By learning from Japan’s...

July 2, 2025
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01Jul

US. California public pension fund, the nation’s largest, faces probe launched by concerned retirees

In recent years, the handling of the nation’s largest public pension fund has caused growing alarm among a group of retirees who rely on it. They have sought an outside audit of California’s $530 billion pension fund, known as the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or CalPERS. They have also tried to persuade legislators to install an inspector general to monitor its operations. Both efforts went nowhere. Now, they’ve decided to take matters into their own hands. The retired public employees are...

July 1, 2025
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June 2025
30Jun

US. Trump may name a ‘shadow’ Fed chair, an unprecedented development in American history

President Donald Trump said last week that he will announce his pick to succeed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell “very soon.” The problem is that Powell still has 11 months left until the end of his term. Trump remains frustrated as ever with the Fed because it has not yet lowered interest rates. He has relentlessly attacked Powell for months. But announcing a Fed chair nominee this far in advance — if he makes good on that plan — would be an...

June 30, 2025
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27Jun

LGBT Older Adults: Chosen Family and Caregiving

By Nancy J. Knauer In the United States, informal eldercare is principally the responsibility of younger relatives. Adult children perform the majority of eldercare and nonrelatives perform only fourteen percent of care. Caregiving in the LGBT community follows a very different pattern that reflects the importance of “chosen family” in the lives of LGBT older adults. Instead of relying on relatives, LGBT older adults largely care for each other. Relatives provide only eleven percent of all eldercare. This article explores the...

June 27, 2025
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26Jun

America’s Boomer Population Grows As Birth Rates Fall

The American population is becoming older, with the proportion of baby boomers increasing while birth rates are declining, according to the newly released Vintage 2024 Population Estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau. The population aged 65 and older increased by 3.1 percent, to 61.2 million, while the population of those under age 18 decreased by 0.2 percent, to 73.1 million, from 2023 to 2024, the data revealed. Why It Matters America's aging population, coinciding with falling birth rates, has become a growing...

June 26, 2025
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25Jun

US. Hollywood heavyweights call on pension fund to divest fossil fuels

More than 200 actors have signed an open letter to the trustees of the SAG-Producers Pension Plan asking it to divest from fossil fuels and redirect the assets into responsible investments. Members of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union have launched the Retire Big Oil campaign. The campaign asks the US$5 billion ($7.7bn) SAG-Producers Pension Plan to phase out its coal, oil and gas holdings. It notes that while many public and private...

June 25, 2025
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23Jun

CFOs rethink pensions, now embracing creative plan design and de-risking strategies

Many companies are considering changing their defined benefit (DB) plans this year, with hybrid structures and cash balance arrangements attracting increased attention, according to a recent Mercer survey of CFOs and financial executives. This appears to represent a shift in thinking about DB plans following a record number of plan terminations in recent years. According to the survey, half of CFOs do not plan to end DB plans in the near future, which Mercer said suggests they are taking a strategic approach...

June 23, 2025
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20Jun

Milliman analysis: Competitive pension risk transfer cost decreases to 100.8% during May

Milliman analysis: Competitive pension risk transfer cost decreases to 100.8% during May Competitive bidding process saves about 3.6% of buyout costs as of May 31 Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today announced the latest results of its Milliman Pension Buyout Index (MPBI). During May, the estimated cost to transfer retiree pension risk to an insurer in a competitive bidding process dropped from 101.1% to 100.8% of a plan’s accounting liabilities (accumulated benefit obligation, or ABO). That means the...

June 20, 2025
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