April 2024

U.S. More people are working well past retirement age. It’s not easy

Hope Murray retired in 2013 after a 50-year career that ranged from game show producer to Hollywood party planner to casino executive. She settled into a life of golf, game nights and pickleball in her San Diego community, her daughter living nearby. Then things got more expensive. Gas was nearly $5 a gallon, medication costs were adding up, the grocery bill was increasing. So she downsized, stopped driving as much and waited longer between haircuts. But she could no longer afford some of...

Progress and priorities: reviewing sustainability in key pension systems

Pension funds are long-term investors and their ability to generate long-term returns relies on the performance of the markets and economies in which they invest. Because sustainability factors such as climate change and biodiversity loss threaten the performance of the markets and economies on which they rely for financial returns, pension funds have a responsibility to consider whether sustainability-related risks will inhibit their ability to protect long-term value and provide an adequate pension to their members or beneficiaries. Accordingly,...

Retirement insecurity 2024 americans’ views of retirement

By Dan Doonan & Kelly Kenneally T he ground is shifting when it comes to retirement. Most Americans are experiencing increased financial pressures "I am scared to be broke." Dream. Eighty-three percent of Americans say that all workers should have a pension so they can be and low levels of retirement savings. Amid growing concerns about Americans’ retirement readiness, policymakers recently enacted measures to help address the grave savings shortfall. On the federal level, Congress passed important retirement legislation in...

Latent Cumulative Disadvantage: US Immigrants’ Reversed Economic Assimilation in Later Life

By Leafia Z Ye One of the most salient findings in research on immigration has been that immigrants experience substantial economic mobility as they accumulate more years in the host-society labor force and eventually approach earnings parity with their native-born counterparts. However, we do not know whether this progress is sustained in retirement. In this paper, I develop a framework of Latent Cumulative (Dis)advantage and hypothesize that even as immigrants are approaching parity with the native-born in terms of current...

US. People Are Worried About Retirement Savings, And They Should Be

This week is America Saves Week, a time to focus on actions Americans can take to successfully save. When it comes to saving for retirement, Americans are feeling pessimistic. In a recent nationwide survey of working age Americans, 79% agree that the nation faces a retirement savings crisis, up from 67% in 2020. And more than half of Americans (55%) are concerned that they cannot achieve financial security in retirement. But is this worry about retirement savings warranted? After all, people worry about many things,...

UN PRI: U.S. pension funds face ‘mixed signals’ on sustainability

A culture of “mixed signals” in U.S. politics has contributed to an uncertain environment for pension funds when it comes to sustainability, according to a report by the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment. The UN PRI report followed research from 2020 and 2021 that found “policy, structural and market barriers” to sustainability in the U.S., U.K., and Australia. The latest work identified 10 separate priorities these jurisdictions needed to address when it came to sustainability. The U.S. pension fund system...

US. People want pensions to make a comeback. Will they?

It’s financially challenging to comfortably retire in the U.S. and many Americans work, without necessarily “wanting” to, well into their golden years. Though not being able to save enough for a secure retirement isn’t a particularly new crisis, the struggle has become more widespread in recent decades. One of the factors fueling the problem is the mass decline of the traditional pension plan. Americans want pension plans to make a comeback. According to a recent report from the National Institute for Retirement Security, 83%...

U.S. private equity exit activity remains low

There were 201 private equity exits totaling $66.7 billion in the first quarter, according to data provided by PitchBook. That compares with 233 exits and $82.4 billion in volume for the fourth quarter. Exit volume was much higher in 2020 and 2021. In the second quarter of 2021, there were 431 exits and $263.3 billion in exit value. There were 65 private equity funds that raised $77.6 billion in during the first quarter. The average size was about $1.2 billion. For all...

US. As Gen Xers Inch Toward Retirement, They’re Considering Where to Live

When they were raising their four children, Billy and Erin Shipley had space for their family to grow: a two-story, five-bedroom house in Sugar Land, Texas, with a large yard and a pool. But as the children became adults and moved out, the second floor was deserted and maintaining the lawn and pool became a burden. Like many members of Generation X facing an empty nest, the Shipleys decided to look for a home better suited to their needs where...

2023 Corporate Pension Funding Study

By Zorast Wadia, Alan H. Perry & Richard J. Botelli Jr The 2023 edition of the Milliman Corporate Pension Funding Study (PFS) is our 23rd annual analysis of the financial disclosures of the 100 U.S. public companies sponsoring the largest defined benefit (DB) pension plans. These 100 companies are ranked highest to lowest by the value of their pension assets as of the end of fiscal year (FY) 2022. These values have been reported to the public, to shareholders, and to...