June 2025

Pension funding gains, negative bond returns reshaping LDI landscape for managers

LDI managers are seeing their assets under management dip slightly as long-duration bond returns have lingered in negative territory for years, and fully funded corporate plan sponsors no longer need to add assets to their liability-hedging portfolios or are transferring assets to insurance companies. Liability-driven investing emerged as the key portfolio strategy among U.S. corporate plan sponsors who closed and/or froze their plans in the wake of the funding crisis that emerged following the dot-com recession of the early 2000s....

El récord de ahorros para el retiro en EE.UU. según Fidelity

Este 2025, los ahorristas para el retiro en Estados Unidos han alcanzado un hito impresionante, resistiendo la volatilidad del mercado. Según el informe original, Fidelity reportó una tasa promedio de ahorro del 14.3% en los planes 401(k) durante el primer trimestre del año, la más alta registrada por la firma. Esta tasa combina las aportaciones de empleados y empleadores, mostrando un compromiso robusto durante tiempos económicos inciertos. Contribuciones de empleados y empleadores Los datos de Fidelity reflejan que la tasa de contribución...

Trump Removed Crypto Warnings From Retirement Plans. Will That Affect 401(k)s?

In 2022, the Biden administration’s retirement plan regulators placed a warning sign on cryptocurrencies, urging plan overseers to exercise “extreme care” before making digital coins available inside 401(k) plans. “Cryptocurrencies are very different from typical retirement plan investments,” the Labor Department noted at the time, “and it can be extraordinarily difficult, even for expert investors, to evaluate these assets and separate the facts from the hype.” The Trump administration’s regulators have decided to rescind this guidance. The Labor Department, which oversees retirement...

Optimal Income Redistribution

By Pavel Brendler, Eva Carceles-Poveda & Arpad Abraham We study whether a redesign of the social security and income tax-and-transfer systems can deliver significant welfare gains. Our rich quantitative model features both realistic inequality over the life-cycle and the key main channels through which redistributive policies can distort aggregate allocations. We find that there are two distinct ways to achieve significant welfare gains with joint policy reforms. The first prioritizes reducing distortions through a regressive pension system, resulting in higher...

US. The Retirement Funds Boomers Rely on Most — and Why Rising Generations Will Need a New Strategy

Whether retirement is like a sunrise on a distant horizon or you can already feel its golden rays warming your golden years, one thing is clear: Your money needs to be ready. While there are universal pillars of smart saving, such as keeping savings in a high-yield savings account, investing consistently and maintaining an emergency fund, each generation approaches retirement saving a little differently. When GOBankingRates teamed up with New York Life to understand how people are feeling about their finances today, one...

Why the US aging population will be a problem for stocks — and your retirement

One reliable indicator of investor behavior suggests that stock valuations in developed markets will peak in the next decade or so and then begin a long-term decline. The measurement for this prediction is demographics — in this case, the aging population of America and other developed markets. Long-term demographic trends are of little concern if you are a short-term-focused investor. But demography becomes quite important if you’re a decade or more from retirement and trying to devise an appropriate financial planning...

New York City Pension Funds Double Down On Decarbonization – New Expectations Will Impact Managers And Their Portfolio Companies

Over the last few months, most of the attention in the climate space in the U.S. has been on the dramatic, and expected, shift in federal government policy. United States New York Environment Over the last few months, most of the attention in the climate space in the U.S. has been on the dramatic, and expected, shift in federal government policy. However, some "blue state" officials continue to seek to advance decarbonization agendas. In this post, we discuss recently announced...

US. Milliman analysis: Public pension funding stable in April after plans end volatile month with slight market gain

Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the latest results of its Public Pension Funding Index (PPFI), which analyzes data from the nation’s 100 largest public defined benefit plans. Despite April market swings caused by trade and tariff uncertainty, the Milliman 100 PPFI plans closed the month with estimated investment gains of 0.4% in aggregate. Individual plans’ estimated returns ranged from -1.8% to 1.4%. Combined, the plans added about $24 billion in market value during the...

May 2025

Income and Wealth Inequality in the United States: An Update Including the 2022 Wave

By Moritz Kuhn & José-Victor Ríos-Rull We provide a comprehensive overview of earnings, income and wealth inequality based on the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances from the United States. We document the current state of inequality and its evolution over the last three decades organizing the data along key demographic dimensions including age, education, and marital status. The 2022 data reveal that wealth remains highly concentrated, with the top 1% holding 35% of total wealth down from a peak of...

Younger Americans Rewriting Rules of Retirement

A majority (55%) of Americans believe that receiving professional financial advice between the ages of 25 and 39 is highly important or even critical for achieving long-term financial stability. The encouraging news is that members of Generation Z and Millennials are not only recognizing this need, but responding to it, according to the Northwestern Mutual 2025 Planning & Progress Study, which surveyed 4,626 U.S. adults aged at least 18 from January 2 through January 19. Of those surveyed, 81% of Gen...