June 2023
01Jun

US. Closing the retirement savings gap: Employer offerings vs. workers’ needs

Employees working for larger companies may have several advantages when it comes to saving for retirement, as larger companies tend to provide more robust retirement benefit offerings than small companies. However, experts hope provisions of SECURE Act 2.0 will help level the playing field among companies of all sizes. According to a new study, Stepping into the Future: Employers, Workers, and the Multigenerational Workforce, by nonprofit Transamerica Institute and its Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, total household retirement savings is...

June 1, 2023
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May 2023
30May

Goldman Sachs’s China dealmaker stops tapping US investors

The head of Goldman Sachs’s private equity business in Asia has said she has stopped trying to raise money in the US because of geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing. Stephanie Hui, who runs the Asia-Pacific private and growth equity arm of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, with investments that include deals in China, made the comments at a private equity conference in Hong Kong on Tuesday. “I’ve been asked to do observations of what we’re seeing in the marketplace . . . [one is] the...

May 30, 2023
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29May

More than half of U.S. women don’t feel financially secure: survey

More than half of U.S. women say they aren’t financially secure, a percentage that increases to 77 per cent among low-income women, according to a survey by Public Opinion Strategies and Lake Research Partners on behalf of the National Council on Aging and the Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement. The survey, which polled more than 1,200 women aged 25 and older, found nearly half said they don’t have an employer-sponsored retirement plan. Among low-income women, three-quarters said they don’t...

May 29, 2023
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26May

Pension Reform: Conceptual Foundations and Practical Challenges

By Seamus Duffy & Oliver Giesecke Underfunded pension are the largest liability for state and local governments across the United States. As a result of increasing recognition of the associated risks, recent statutory funding mandates led to a sharp increases in required contributions, threatening city services and employee bases. As funding pressure mounts, pension reforms offer a viable tool for prudent economic policy. We propose five general principles that guide pension reform considerations and discuss how these principle stand in...

May 26, 2023
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24May

US. House passes bill requiring Treasury report on economic risks from China

The House overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan bill that would require the Treasury Department, along with several federal regulators, to issue a report on risks posed to the U.S. by China's financial sector. In a 400-5 vote, the House passed the China Financial Threat Mitigation Act of 2023 Monday, introduced by Reps. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., and Roger Williams, R-Texas. The bill directs the Treasury secretary — in consultation with the chairmen of the Federal Reserve, SEC, Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the...

May 24, 2023
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23May

US. Major pension funds are steering big dollars to infrastructure

Major U.S. pension funds are increasingly turning to infrastructure for its solid risk-adjusted return profile and strong performance resilience. Since 2011, Pensions & Investments has tracked more than 950 infrastructures hires totaling more than $134 billion committed, paced by 148 hires and $17.7 billion committed in 2021. Maine Public Employees Retirement System, Augusta, is also drawn to infrastructure due to its ability provide diversification from the plan's public and private equity and fixed-income assets, said William Proom, managing director of investments...

May 23, 2023
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22May

US. Divesting fossil fuels looms larger for more funds

As the race toward renewable energy and away from fossil fuels to address climate change heats up, more pension funds may look at divestment, willingly or otherwise. According to a divestment commitment database maintained by Stand.earth, a climate action advocacy group, 1,591 organizations worldwide with a collective $40.51 trillion in assets have publicly committed to some level of fossil fuel divestment. Pension funds represent 11.7% of those commitments, compared with 35.8% from faith-based organizations, 15.7% from educational institutions and 11.9%...

May 22, 2023
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19May

But What If a Pension Fund is Overfunded?

By James Tatum Currently, the consensus is that if a pension fund is less than 100 percent funded, it is underfunded.1 In other words, if the pension fund does not presently have all the assets needed to pay liabilities in the future (and without consideration of future contributions to the pension fund), the pension fund and retiree benefits are theoretically imperiled. So, out of concern for “underfunded” pension funds, of which there are many, there have been innumerable research papers,...

May 19, 2023
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18May

US. Pension Funds Appear Unfazed by Potential US Default

With the X-date looming for when the U.S. government could default on its bonds and welch on paying other obligations due to the standoff over raising the federal debt ceiling, there is scant panic among pension plans. While they have little to say publicly about the prospect of a default, one CIO said, “We have enough liquidity to get through this, and we think [the impasse in Washington] will be resolved quickly.” Typically, plans exude an outward calm. A spokeswoman for...

May 18, 2023
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17May

US. Pension risk transfer market off to strong start this year

The U.S. pension risk transfer market had a very strong first quarter, with an estimated $6 billion in total volume, according to a report from Legal & General Group. The estimate exceeds the previous record for a first quarter set last year at $5.3 billion. Legal & General noted that PRT activity has traditionally been the slowest during the first half of the year and projects a total of $23 billion in volume for the first half of 2023. The...

May 17, 2023
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