October 2022

P&I Research Center. Pension Risk Transfer

By Valerie Ge Over the past 12 months through June, $57.4 billion in liabilities were involved in pension risk transfer deals. Pension buyout transactions reached $25.3 billion, or 44.1% of the total, followed by buy-ins of $23.2 billion, 40.4%, and longevity swaps of $7.5 billion, or 13.1% of the total. Buyout transactions increased 93.3% from $2.9 billion in the fi rst quarter but buy-in transactions declined to $2.4 billion from $7.3 billion. Source: @s3 prod pionline 500 views

Older Workers’ Employment and Social Security Spillovers through the Second Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic

By Gopi Shah Goda, Emilie Jackson, Lauren Hersch Nicholas & Sarah Stith The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a large and immediate drop in employment among US workers, along with major expansions of unemployment insurance and work from home. We use Current Population Survey and Social Security application data to study employment among older adults and their participation in disability and retirement insurance programs through the second year of the pandemic. We find ongoing improvements in employment outcomes among older workers in...

NYC Comptroller Introduces New Transparency Dashboard to View Pension Fund Assets and Performance

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander unveiled today a new interactive website that allows pension beneficiaries and the public to view asset allocation and performance for the City’s five public pension funds which guarantee retirement security for city workers. Together, the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, Teachers’ Retirement System, Police Pension Fund, Fire Department Pension Fund, and Board of Education Retirement System have approximately $242 billion in assets under management across all asset classes as of August 31,...

How Pension Plans Evolved Out of the Great Financial Crisis

Despite the recession and subsequent loss of assets value, pensions plans continued to pay out over a trillion dollars in benefits to stakeholders over the recessionary era. Public pension funds were not spared from the carnage of the Great Financial Crisis, as assets and funding statuses eroded between December 2007 and June 2009. From 2009-2013, there was a significant dip in the aggregate percentage of required contributions paid. When the economy recovered, states and other plan sponsors normalized their contribution...

US Public Pensions Unlikely to Face UK Pension-Style Crisis

U.S. state and local pensions are unlikely to face the sudden liquidity crisis that U.K. corporate pensions are confronting given their different approaches to valuing liabilities and the resulting differences in investment strategies, Fitch Ratings says. However, U.S. public pension funds’ investment return assumptions incentivize higher yielding asset investments, posing the risk of deeper losses in a market downturn. State and local government pensions discount their liabilities using the same fixed long-term investment return rate that they assume for their...

Estados Unidos aumenta pensiones de la seguridad social el 8,7% para 2023

La Seguridad Social es la mayor fuente de ingresos de los jubilados en EE.UU., pero sus bolsillos se han visto mermados por la inflación elevada. La administración dela Seguridad Social de Estados Unidos anunció este jueves un aumento de sus beneficios del 8,7 % para 2023, después de que se diera a conocer el último dato de inflación interanual que bajó el 8,2% en septiembre, aunque sigue siendo una cifra elevada. La oficina explicó en un comunicado que de media este...

US. Social Security Announces Big Bump in 2023 COLA

The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced Oct. 13 that the monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits will increase 8.7% in 2023. The change will affect approximately 70 million Americans and translates to an increase in Social Security benefits of more than $140 per month starting in January 2023. The 8.7% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will begin with benefits payable to more than 65 million Social Security beneficiaries in January 2023. Increased payments to more than 7...

US. Funding Status of Pensions Increases Marginally Despite Equity Market Downturn

Corporate pension funding ratio improves to best rate of the year in September despite 2022’s worst month of market losses Rising rates in September contributed to higher overall funded ratio for corporate pension funds. Equities continued their year-long slump with the Nasdaq trading down over 10% and S&P 500 trading down 9.6% on the month. The dynamic led to at least two pension consultants finding that U.S. corporate pension funding levels moved above 100% in September as an increase in the...

US. N.J. pension fund would stop investing in fossil fuels under bill moved Thursday

The movement to divest pension funds from fossil fuel companies is gaining steam in New Jersey after lawmakers advanced a long-stalled bill Thursday. "What's proposed here is sending a signal to the fossil fuel world and industry that we've gotta find different ways to live - and you, the companies that produce these fuels, you've got to help us," said Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex), a prime sponsor of the bill and chair of the Senate Energy Committee. The measure (S416) would...

US. Congress is still considering changes to the retirement system, including catch-up contributions

There’s still a decent chance that changes to the U.S. retirement system will be enacted before the end of the year. Despite there being just a few months left before the next Congress convenes Jan. 3 — the midterm elections will be Nov. 8 — the push to improve Americans’ ability to save for retirement is supported by both Republicans and Democrats. The proposals are collectively called “Secure 2.0” — which is a nod to the 2019 Secure Act, whose provisions...