April 2023
21Apr

Management of Retirement Funds by Republican vs. Democrat States: Understanding the Differences

By Mustafa O. Caglayan, Edward R. Lawrence & Robinson Reyes-Peña As most of the state pensions in the USA deal with their respective funding crisis, we compare the management approaches undertaken by funds located in the states that are governed by Republicans vis-à-vis funds that are located in states governed by Democrats. We find that pension funds located in states governed by Republicans display a lower funding ratio compared to the pension funds located in states governed by Democrats. The...

April 21, 2023
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21Apr

80% of Older Americans Cannot Pay for Long-Term Care or Withstand a Financial Shock, New Study Shows

A new analysis by the National Council on Aging (NCOA) and the LeadingAge LTSS Center @ UMass Boston finds that 80% of older Americans (47 million) continue to be unable to sustain a financial shock such as needing to pay for long-term care services and supports (LTSS) or the loss of income due to divorce or widowhood. The 80%: The Continued Toll of Financial Insecurity in Retirement looks at the total net value of all assets—housing, retirement accounts, income, and...

April 21, 2023
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20Apr

US. Prudential agrees to pay denied life insurance claims in settlement with US Labor Department

In a settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor, Prudential Financial has pledged to no longer deny claims on life insurance policies after collecting premiums from policyholders it later determined had failed to prove "insurability" to qualify for coverage. DOL's Employee Benefits Security Administration had investigated Prudential Financial after more than 200 beneficiaries were denied claims between 2017 and 2020 over questions of whether deceased policyholders actually qualified for coverage through employer-based supplemental life insurance programs — only after Prudential...

April 20, 2023
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19Apr

U.S. workers want government to require employers to offer retirement plans

American workers favor government mandates requiring employers to offer retirement plans and make matching contributions, according to a new survey released Tuesday by Natixis Investment Managers. More than 4 in 5 workers (81%) said that employers should be required to offer workplace retirement savings plans, with millennials voicing the greatest support for such a mandate (88%) followed by Generation X (79%) and baby boomers (70%). More than 3 in 5 workers (78%) also said they support requiring employers to make matching...

April 19, 2023
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18Apr

Do state and local pension plans really need to be fully funded?

The Center for Retirement Research’s most recent undefined makes a strong case for shifting the focus of fiscal sustainability for state and local pension plans from full funding to stabilizing their pension debt as a share of the economy. While full funding is tidy in the sense that, if the pension were to shut down, assets would be available to pay full benefits, it involves a significant opportunity cost in terms of forgoing public investment in infrastructure and education. To assess...

April 18, 2023
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14Apr

Why An Aging Population Might Not Doom The American Economy

The American economy is booming and robust. Just look at the chart below, which shows that the overall unemployment rate — the share of people within the labor force who are without work but are looking for it — is lower than it’s been in more than 50 years: But wait! Americans just don’t want to work like they used to. As you can see in the following chart, the labor force participation rate — the share of all Americans...

April 14, 2023
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10Apr

US. The healthcare system is unprepared for an aging population

A conservative estimate of 30,000 geriatricians will be needed to care for older adults by 2030, currently there is only about a quarter of that. The U.S. healthcare system must address the shortage of geriatricians -- and fast. The U.S. population is growing and aging, with an estimated 42% increase in those aged 65 and older between 2019 and 2034. The shortage of primary care providers in the U.S. means 17,800 to 48,000 fewer doctors will be available than needed within...

April 10, 2023
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05Apr

How America Saves 2022

By Vanguard Over the past decade, retirement plan sponsors have increasingly turned to automatic solutions to influence employee retirement saving behavior. As a result, plan participation rates have increased, automatic enrollment designs have become stronger, and participant portfolio construction has continued to improve with more age-appropriate asset mixes and less extreme equity allocations. During 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic continued to impact many parts of the economy. While it pushed to recover, the economy faced prominent headwinds that stoked several forms of...

April 5, 2023
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05Apr

US. NYC pension leaders to seek emissions cut plans from fund managers

New York City pension leaders will press external fund managers, including private market fund managers, on Wednesday for details on their plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions, officials said. Public, and private market managers that have faced less pressure on climate issues to date, run most of the roughly $240 billion in New York City pension fund assets. Boards overseeing the majority of that money have approved new expectations for those managers, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander said, which...

April 5, 2023
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March 2023
30Mar

US. Pension Risk Transfers Spiked in 2022 due to Higher Interest Rates, Report Shows

Rising interest rates drove increased pension risk transfer activity in 2022, as these transactions totaled $52 billion in premiums last year—the highest total in the decade Aon has been tracking the information, according to a recent report. A total of 568 pension risk transfer transactions were made last year, with IBM headlining this activity by completing a $16 billion retiree lift-out in September  2022. This was the second-largest PRT transaction in U.S. history, Aon’s U.S. Risk Transfer report for March...

March 30, 2023
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