January 2023

Investing novices call the shots on $4 trillion at public pensions

Canada selects directors to oversee its public pension funds for their financial expertise and pays some six-figure salaries. In the Netherlands, board members must obtain approval from the central bank. In the U.S., a lineup of unpaid union-backed reps, retirees and political appointees are the vanguards of a $4 trillion slice of the economy that looks after the nation’s retired public servants. They’re proving to be no match for a system that’s exploded in size and complexity. The disparity is dragging...

U.S. corporate pension funding holds steady at 95% despite market volatility

  U.S. corporate pension plan funding ratios remained steady in 2022 despite significant market volatility, according to a new analysis from Willis Towers Watson. The analysis, which examined pension plan data from 356 Fortune 1000 companies, estimated their aggregate funding ratio to be 95% at the end of 2022, the same as a year earlier. According to the analysis, Willis Towers Watson estimated that the pension plans finished 2022 with $1.22 trillion in assets, down 26% from $1.65 trillion a year earlier,...

December 2022

U.S. New York Raises Cap on Pensions’ Private Equity, Hedge Fund Assets

New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill on Friday that allows the state’s and New York City’s pensions to increase allocations to more expensive and opaque asset classes like private equity that could potentially deliver higher returns. The bill raises the cap on alternative assets — which also include hedge funds, private real estate and direct loans to companies — as well as foreign stocks, to 35% from 25%. Boosting the limit will allow pensions, including the $233 billion...

U.S. New retirement account rules make it easier to tap savings early for emergencies

It will soon be easier for cash-strapped Americans to tap their retirement savings for emergency expenses. President Joe Biden is poised to sign a $1.7 trillion bill that amends rules related to so-called hardship distributions from 401(k) plans. The measures are tucked into “Secure 2.0,” a collection of retirement reforms attached to the overall legislative package, which will fund the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year through next September. The House and Senate passed the bill last week. Current...

Inflation, war, rising interest rates posed steep challenges for investors in 2022

An inflationary environment that is anything but transitory, the volatility arising from Russia's invasion of Ukraine and other geopolitical crises, and a bevy of controversies surrounding ESG investing dominated headlines this year, while the fall of Allianz Global Investors and an exceptionally busy regulatory year were also among Pensions & Investments' top 10 stories of 2022. The top story this year was inflation and the Federal Reserve's aggressive actions to curb it through multiple interest rate hikes. After more than...

Equity Gains Boost U.S. Public Pension Funding Status, Says Milliman

Strong market gains during October and November helped the estimated funded levels of the 100 largest public pension plans in the U.S. rebound to 74.7%, as of Nov. 30, from 71.6% a month earlier, according to consulting firm Milliman’s public pension funding index. It was a sharp turnaround from September, when poor market performance erased more than five percentage points from the funded ratio during the month alone. The aggregate asset value of the pension funds increased by approximately $158...

Cuáles son los cambios que la propuesta Secure 2.0 propone a las reglas de jubilación en EE.UU.

El paquete de reformas con nuevas reglas para la jubilación conocido como Secure 2.0 facilitaría a los estadounidenses acumular ahorros para el retiro y también reducir el costo al momento de retirarlos Los estadounidenses que buscan retirarse podrían tener mejores condiciones de ahorro y de acceso a su dinero, si un paquete de cambios en las reglas de jubilación es aprobado esta semana en el Congreso. El paquete de nuevas reglas se conoce como Secure 2.0 y plantea siete cambios básicos...

US. New Spending Bill Makes It Easier for Americans Saving for Retirement

After years of negotiation, lawmakers introduced a retirement security package as part of a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill early Tuesday. The package, referred to as SECURE 2.0, includes several provisions, such as expanding automatic enrollment in 401(k) and 403(b) plans, enhancing the tax credit for small businesses launching a retirement plan and allowing employers to make matching contributions to a 401(k) plan, 403(b) plan or SIMPLE IRA based on qualified student loan payments. The package combines three bipartisan bills from...

Turn the Ship: The Moral Imperative and Legal Authority to Protect Retirees with Defaulted Student Loans from Social Security Offset

Turn the Ship: The Moral Imperative and Legal Authority to Protect Retirees with Defaulted Student Loans from Social Security Offset

By: Johnson Tyler The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is not powerless when it comes to debt collection or defaulted borrowers. It both has the moral imperative and legal authority to stop seizing Social Security benefits from elderly (62+) borrowers in default. An underutilized law allows an agency to exempt an entire class of debtors from Treasury Offset, the debt collection process that leads to the reduction of Social Security payments. This paper explains the history of offset; why recent...

Declining US Natural Interest Rate: Quantifying and Qualifying the Role of Pensions

Declining US Natural Interest Rate: Quantifying and Qualifying the Role of Pensions

By: Jacopo Bonchi & Giacomo Caracciolo We develop a life-cycle model and calibrate it to the US economy to quantify and qualify the role of the public pension system for the past and future trend of the natural interest rate, the so-called r∗. Between 1970 and 2015, past pension reforms mitigated the secular decline in r∗, raising it by around 1%, mainly through the positive effect of a higher replacement rate. As regards the future, we simulate the demographic trends, expected...