August 2025
04Aug

This Bezos-Backed Real Estate Startup Is Quietly Disrupting the 401(k)

For decades, the 401(k) has been the gold standard of retirement planning in the U.S.—a slow-and-steady way to build wealth by investing in stocks, bonds, and mutual funds through your employer. But while that model has worked for millions, it's also left a lot to be desired: limited control, unpredictable returns, and almost no cash flow until you’re well into your 60s. That's why a new real estate investing platform backed by Jeff Bezos is turning heads—and quietly offering...

August 4, 2025
News, ,
Read more...
01Aug

Which U.S. States Have the Most People Aged 85 and Older?

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 estimates, over 55 million Americans were aged 65 or older. That figure represents about 16.5% of the total U.S. population at the time. Of this group, over 6.3 million were aged 85 and above, a number projected to rise significantly in the coming decades. By 2050, the number of Americans aged 65+ is expected to grow by 47%, reaching over 82 million, according to the Population Reference Bureau. The fastest growth will occur in the 85+...

August 1, 2025
News,
Read more...

July 2025
31Jul

US. Private Equity Delivers High Risk, Low Returns, and Costly Fees

Private equity does not deliver the superior returns that its advocates insist justify pension fund investment in this sector, and such investment would be highly risky for retail investors, according to a new report published by the AFT and Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund. The stakes couldn’t be higher, as the Trump administration is expected to issue a new executive order that would require federal agencies to explore opening up 401(k) plans to risky private market investments. This is something the...

July 31, 2025
News,
Read more...
30Jul

How pension funds are handling US equity concentration risk

With more of the US market’s fate tied up in a handful of enormous technology stocks, investment teams are having to reconsider their exposure, as Jon Yarker reports. In recent years, the size of the so-called “Magnificent Seven” technology stocks has soared, absorbing an increasing amount of the US equity market. According to Hymans Robertson, the weight of the 10 largest market-cap stocks in the MSCI World sits at 23%, well above the historical norms of 10–15%. The septet of tech...

July 30, 2025
News,
Read more...
30Jul

Fertility Rate in the U.S. Reached an All-Time Low in 2024, CDC Data Reveals

Countries like Italy and Japan have been famously struggling to raise their birthrates to sustain their aging populations, and it turns out that the United States might not be doing super well, either. New CDC data released this month reveals that while the number of births in the United States increased by 1% from 2023—to 3,628,934 in 2024—the general fertility rate has declined by 1%. It now stands at 53.8 births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 44, an all-time low. The...

July 30, 2025
News,
Read more...
29Jul

US. Full Funding: Good News, But Now What?

Pension plan funding levels have been high for a number of years. Fully funded high, and then some. That’s good news, of course. But that raises a question: “Now what?” Industry experts in a July 23 P&I Online webinar discussed steps that a plan sponsor, and the service providers it enlists, can and may want to take once a plan reaches full funding levels or more. Panelists included Mark Tavares, Partner and Lead of Corporate Defined Benefit Solutions at Aon;...

July 29, 2025
News,
Read more...
28Jul

Will the US open 401(k) plans to private markets?

The likelihood that the Trump administration will seek to open up 401(k) retirement savings plans to private markets through an executive order seems to be rising. According to The Wall Street Journal, the order may instruct the labour department and the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer guidance on how to include private asset options in 401(k) plans, which comprised US$12.4 trillion in defined-contribution plans alone as of end-2024. Such proposals have long been surrounded by doubts about their viability for retail...

July 28, 2025
News, ,
Read more...
25Jul

US. NCPERS Warns of Risks From Dismantling Public Pensions

In its 2025 update of its 2018 report, “Unintended Consequences: How Scaling Back Public Pensions Puts Government Revenues at Risk,” the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems found that public pensions produced $445.2 billion more in state and local revenues than taxpayers contributed in 2023. According to the update, state and local public pensions are a “powerful economic engine,” generating more than $660 billion and contributing nearly $3 trillion in economic output in 2023. While policymakers grapple with decisions...

July 25, 2025
News,
Read more...
23Jul

US. Pensions for all: New bill guarantees retirement income to 56M workers without a plan

Retirement proposals for workers without an employer-sponsored retirement plan were front and center at a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee meeting last week. Senator Bill Cassidy, (R-LA), chair of the HELP Committee, delivered opening remarks on how to empower gig workers to access portable workplace benefits, like health care and retirement, in his legislation aimed at improving retirement security of freelance and gig workers called the Independent Retirement Fairness Act that he introduced last week in the Senate. “The...

July 23, 2025
News,
Read more...
22Jul

US. New York State Pension Bulks Up on Private Equity in $3B Spree

New York’s $273 billion state pension fund is bulking up on private equity investments, earmarking more than $1.4 billion toward the asset class in March alone, according to its monthly transaction report. The spree comes after the New York State Common Retirement Fund committed about $500 million during the previous three months combined. The allocations to private equity investments accounted for nearly half of the $3.1 billion commitments doled out by the NYSCRF in March. The largest of those was a $500 million commitment to the...

July 22, 2025
News, ,
Read more...