March 2023

COVID-19 Private Pension Withdrawals and Unemployment Tenures

By Tristram Sainsbury, Robert V. Breunig & Timothy Watson This is the first study to evaluate the effects of early pension withdrawal policies on tenures on unemployment payments in the COVID-19 context. We use a novel set of linked whole-of-population administrative records to examine more than half-a-million Australians who found themselves newly on an unemployment payment in the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic. We estimate that receiving a lump sum of up to A$10,000 from superannuation accounts at the...

Americans less prepared for retirement amid financial uncertainty – Fidelity

Americans are less prepared for retirement than they were during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Fidelity Investment's 2023 retirement saving assessment study. According to the study, which was released Tuesday and examined the responses of 3,569 retirement savers that are run through Fidelity's retirement planning platform, the typical American saver is on target to have only 78% of the income needed to cover expenses during retirement. That is down from 83% at the beginning of 2020, when...

U.S. General Accountability Office probing collapse of St. Clare’s pension fund

The U.S. Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, is probing the alleged mismanagement of a depleted pension fund that wiped out retirement plans for more than 1,100 former employees of the now-closed St. Clare's Hospital in Schenectady. State Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara disclosed the federal investigation on Wednesday and said he learned of it this week during a meeting with staff members with the House Committee on Education and Workforce. They had met "to discuss potential federal solutions regarding...

How Investors Can Prepare for a Recession

The likelihood that the U.S. enters a recession has been growing as the Fed continues to fight inflation by raising interest rates. Recessions, significant periods of broad decline in economic activity, are inevitable, but still occur relatively infrequently (the U.S. has only experienced seven recessions in the last 50 years). Compared to typical periods of economic expansion, recessions are also relatively brief, averaging roughly six months to two years in length. However, recessions can cripple household wealth and set investors...

US. Biden uses first veto to defend rule on ESG investing

U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday rejected a Republican proposal to prevent pension fund managers from basing investment decisions on factors like climate change, in the first veto of his presidency. "I just signed this veto because the legislation passed by the Congress would put at risk the retirement savings of individuals across the country," Biden said in a video posted on Twitter. The bill cleared Congress on March 1, when the Senate voted 50-46 to adopt a measure to overturn...

US. Some Public Pension Funds Are Pulling Back on Private Equity

Some U.S. public pension and investment funds are pulling back on private equity after a decade of state and local retirement systems aggressively pursuing the expensive, risky and hard-to-trade asset class. Maryland’s $65 billion retirement system is investing less new money in private equity. At Alaska’s $77 billion state fund, the investment chief wants to cancel a planned ramp-up. And the $615 million pension fund of Mendocino County, Calif., last month opted against introducing private equity to its investment mix. “We...

Politicians Make Poor Asset Managers

Not that long ago, state legislators of various stripes told their state pension systems they must immediately divest of any portfolio investments tied to companies doing business in South Africa. The apartheid debate was front and center for nearly every public pension fund in the country. Several funds went along with the political demands, but most did not. Pension officials took the view that bowing to divestment demands would be a complete surrender of their independent, fiduciary responsibilities owed...

US. Ohio public employee pension funds lose more than $30 million in bank collapse

Ohio's public pension systems collectively lost tens of millions of dollars invested in Silicon Valley Bank of California and Signature Bank of New York, two of the largest banks to fail in U.S. history Ohio's State Teachers Retirement System took the biggest hit. Last week, it had SVB shares worth $27.2 million, which represents 0.03% of the fund's total portfolio. It did not own shares of Signature. Last week, Ohio Public Employees Retirement System held shares in SVB worth $3.2 million...

GOP lawmaker says US should consider raising retirement age for future Social Security beneficiaries

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina said Sunday that raising the retirement age for future Social Security beneficiaries should be “on the table” as long as it doesn’t affect “anybody that’s heading into retirement right now.” “I think that’s something that has to be on the table, we have to look at,” Mace told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on “State of the Union” when asked about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s call for a higher retirement age for Americans who...

Legal & General U.S. Gig Economy study

By Sir Nigel Wilson, John Godfrey & Edyta Borowy (Legal & General) The data was collected via online survey fielded to individuals sample sourced from YouGov’s US panel. The survey scripted and hosted on Gryphon, YouGov’s proprietary survey scripting platform and the field work took place between August 19 and 31, 2022. 1,044 surveys of freelancers and self-employed workers between 18 and 60 years old, non-student/non retired drawing 60% or more of their income from gig work were completed. Key...