March 2025
25Mar

US. Closing the Retirement Gap: Challenges and Opportunities

There is progress in expanding retirement plan coverage, but there still is work to be done. An expert panel recently highlighted some of the challenges to be met in building on that progress. They offered their insights in a discussion that was part of the recent 16th annual National Institute on Retirement Security Retirement Policy Conference. Moderated by National Institute on Retirement Security Executive Director Dan Doonan, the panel included Lilach Frenkel, Director, Product Innovation, CAAT Pension Plan; Joelle Saad-Lessler,...

March 25, 2025
News, Slider,
Read more...
24Mar

US. 4 Reasons Your Retirement Plan Is Overly Conservative

A flaw of conventional retirement planning is its detachment from reality. This disconnect often leads to overly conservative retirement income plans that require retirees to make unnecessary spending sacrifices. That’s a problem because the goal of retirement planning is to maximize quality of life, which involves taking a realistic look at a retiree’s situation to enhance retirement income and to encourage spending. Let’s explore four common factors contributing to overly conservative retirement income plans and how to avoid them. #1 Not...

March 24, 2025
News, Slider,
Read more...
21Mar

Navigating the retirement window: Introduce more certainty to outcomes

For most savers, the primary objective of their financial plan is to ensure they have sufficient funds to meet their spending needs during retirement. Despite this intention, taking action can be daunting due to the uncertainty surrounding a new phase of life and a lack of information around critical decisions that must be made. These are some reasons why, when it comes to retirement, many Americans are unprepared. A Federal Reserve study found that 25% of working Americans have no...

March 21, 2025
News, Slider,
Read more...
20Mar

US. Some retirees will see bump in Social Security benefit starting next month

Retirement just got a little boost for many public sector retirees and their spouses. By the end of this month, more than 3 million Social Security recipients affected by the Social Security Fairness Act that President Biden signed into law in January will see a bump in their benefits. This law increases monthly Social Security benefits for certain types of workers, including some teachers, firefighters, and police officers in many states, federal employees covered by the Civil Service Retirement System, and...

March 20, 2025
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
19Mar

U.S. pension risk transfer volume tops $50 billion in 2024, just short of 2022 record

U.S. pension risk transfer volume topped $50 billion in 2024, just shy of the record-setting volume two years earlier, according to a survey from LIMRA. Total dollar volume for pension buyout and buy-in transactions for the year ended Dec. 31 was $51.8 billion, up 14% from 2023. Of that total, LIMRA recorded $48.1 billion in buyout sales and $3.7 billion in buyout sales in 2024. Fourth-quarter volume totaled $12 billion, down 4% from the year-earlier quarter, but volume totals of $14.6...

March 19, 2025
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
18Mar

Amid robust U.S. investment, Australia’s largest retirement fund plots an ambitious agenda

AustralianSuper first began operating in 2006 when the Superannuation Trust of Australia and the Australian Retirement Fund merged, seeing the benefits of size. That year, CIO and Deputy Chief Executive Mark Delaney was responsible for managing approximately A$21.3 billion. Almost 20 years later, he’s running Australia’s largest superannuation fund, with over A$380 billion ($239 billion) in assets and serving over 3.5 million Australians across a broad swath of professions. And that is only set to grow in coming years with...

March 18, 2025
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
18Mar

US. Worried how the stock market could impact your retirement? Here are 3 questions from experts.

Watching your 401(k) plan savings recede as stocks slide can be gut-wrenching, sparking anxiety about whether you'll ever be able to retire — a particularly loaded issue for Gen Xers, given the oldest members of the generation are hitting 60 this year. But financial experts say it's important not to panic in the face of plunging markets or rising recession risks because that can lead to rash decisions that cost you money. Instead, it's important to focus on some key investment questions before taking...

March 18, 2025
News, Slider,
Read more...
14Mar

US. CalSTRS CIO Scott Chan: Trump administration policies raise risk of recession, stagflation

CalSTRS CIO Scott Chan said the probability of a future recession accompanied by stagflation has increased due to the “unprecedented and world-changing” risks associated with the Trump administration’s policies. In a livestream of the March 12 investment committee meeting of the $349.7 billion California State Teachers’ Retirement System, West Sacramento, Chan cited President Donald Trump’s spate of executive orders in his first weeks in office as the primary driver of the risk of uncertainty in the markets. “As you know, markets...

March 14, 2025
News, Slider,
Read more...
13Mar

US. A group of Democratic New York senators are asking the state pension to divest from Tesla, citing ‘increasingly perilous’ risk with Elon Musk as CEO

As the price of Tesla shares plummet, a group of Democratic New York state senators are urging the state’s comptroller to divest the state pension fund’s position in the Elon Musk–run automaker. The senators—a group of 23 Democratic representatives led by Senator Patricia Fahy (D—Albany)—sent a letter to the New York State Comptroller, Thomas Napoli, on Tuesday afternoon, asserting that Tesla’s volatile stock performance may pose an “increasingly perilous and financially unsustainable risk” to the pension fund, particularly if Elon Musk remains...

March 13, 2025
News, Slider,
Read more...
13Mar

US. Corporate Pension Funding Ratios Decline Amid Weak Market Returns

  Corporate pension plans over the past year have seen their funding surpluses increase significantly, as strong market returns and heightened interest rates consistently improved the health of corporate pension finances. However, in February, corporate pension funding ratios declined, a result of both weak equity returns and an increase in the value of pension plan liabilities, breaking a three-to-four-month streak of month-over-month increases. Funded Status Declines Investment consultant Wilshire estimated that the funded status of corporate U.S. pension plans in the S&P 500...

March 13, 2025
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...