September 2024
23Sep

The U.S. Retirement System Will Fail Most Future Retirees

Careful research by Ph.D economists concludes America faces a huge retirement shortfall. We are about eight to nine years away from Social Security's inability to pay full benefits; all boomers are past age 60, and the typical Gen Y and Millennial is predicted to do a little worse or much worse than the cohorts of their big brothers, sisters, and parents. The erosion in retirement security is worse for the bottom 60% or so of the earnings distribution. Yes,...

September 23, 2024
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20Sep

US. House passes anti-ESG package of bills

House Republicans passed two pieces of anti-ESG legislation in just as many days, culminating in what the party has dubbed “woke week.” The topic is essentially a continuation of the GOP’s long-running anti-ESG campaign, which last year featured a handful of hearings and numerous bills during “ESG month.” This week’s bills, which seek to undo rules from the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Labor and others, stand virtually no chance of passage in the Senate or of getting President Joe...

September 20, 2024
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19Sep

US. Less Than Half of Pre-Retirees Actively Saving for Retirement

Only 40% of pre-retirees—those between five and 10 years away from their desired retirement age—say they are financially preparing for retirement. This according to New York Life’s latest Wealth Watch survey, released Sept. 17, which found that American adults overwhelmingly report they are not financially preparing for major life events like purchasing a home, starting a family, changing careers, or retirement. The survey also found half of pre-retirees think they will retire later than expected, and 22% think they may never...

September 19, 2024
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19Sep

US. New York City Pensions’ CIO Steven Meier discusses trustees’ attitudes to ESG

For Steven Meier, chief investment officer of the New York City public pension funds, finding alignment – particularly regarding ESG – among the trustees of the five pension plans he manages, is one of the key challenges he faces. The trustees of the five New York City public pension plans diverge in their attitudes to ESG, and one of the key challenges Meier faces is “finding consistency of thought” among these trustees, Meier said this week. Meier’s office manages the New...

September 19, 2024
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17Sep

US. State pension funds significantly beat expected investment returns

The Kentucky Public Pensions Authority (KPPA) announced the average composite return for assets under management was 10.7% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024, while insurance trust assets under management earned 11.4%.  All pension and insurance portfolios returned significantly more than their actuarial assumed rates of return, which are 6.5% for all County Employees Retirement System (CERS) pension and insurance portfolios and the Kentucky Employees Retirement System (KERS) and State Police Retirement System (SPRS) insurance trusts, 6.25% for the KERS Hazardous...

September 17, 2024
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17Sep

US. Optimism about Retirement Preparedness Growing

Headlines to the contrary, a recent survey found that confidence is growing among American employees concerning their ability to meet their long-term financial and retirement goals. According to the fourth annual Protected Retirement survey from the Nationwide Retirement Institute, more than 6 in 10 (65%) workers say they are on the right track when it comes to financial preparedness for retirement. This figure rises to 71% for those aged 22-34 years old, which is a 15-point increase from 2023. This improvement,...

September 17, 2024
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13Sep

Pension Risk Transfer Monitor

By Legal & General  In this latest edition of our Pension Risk Transfer (PRT) Monitor, we off¬er a side-by-side analysis of the two largest PRT markets globally – the US and UK. We expect PRT volumes to remain elevated across the next decade. Based on current levels, more than £250 billion of combined UK and US volumes are likely to be secured by insurers in the next 3 years alone. In this bulletin we reflect on the first half of...

September 13, 2024
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13Sep

The future of retirement security: An international comparison through the lens of adequacy, sustainability, equity and plan design

By Surya Kolluri, Catherine Reilly & David Richardson The average retiree can now expect to spend about two decades in retirement, roughly double the time from 50 years ago. Along with extended lifespans, the number of workers per retiree is declining around the world and ever fewer workers have access to defined benefit (DB) plans that promise a guaranteed income in retirement. Instead, most workers save for retirement through defined contribution (DC) plans, which do not automatically convert savings into...

September 13, 2024
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12Sep

IBM completes $6 billion pension buyout with Prudential, its second in 2 years

International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, N.Y., purchased a group annuity contract from Prudential Insurance Co. of America to transfer $6 billion in defined benefit plan liabilities. The purchase of the contract, which closed Sept. 11, transfers the benefit-paying responsibility for about 32,000 retirees and beneficiaries covered by the IBM Personal Pension Plan, according to an 8-K filing with the SEC. According to the filing, the transferred participants represent “certain pension benefits that began to be paid prior to 2016.” Prudential will take on the...

September 12, 2024
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12Sep

US pension fund allocation to private debt falls short of target

US pension funds were below their median target allocation to private debt in August, a reflection of the challenges in analyzing the growing number of private debt participants. The median target allocation across 117 US pension funds was $188 million, while the median actual allocation was $112 million, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data. This suggests that pension funds had a $76 million median net underallocation to private debt as of Aug. 21. The majority of pension funds analyzed failed to meet...

September 12, 2024
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