April 2024

The Race/Ethnicity Gap in Retirement Plan Participation: More than Just Demographics

By David Blanchett American companies have been actively shifting away from defined benefit (DB) plans towards defined contribution (DC) plans for decades. This shift places more burden on workers to make decisions like whether to participate in the retirement plan, how much to save, and how to invest those savings. This analysis explores how participation in a workforce retirement plan varies by race and ethnicity leveraging data from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) to the 2023 Current Population...

Progress and priorities: reviewing sustainability in key pension systems

Pension funds are long-term investors and their ability to generate long-term returns relies on the performance of the markets and economies in which they invest. Because sustainability factors such as climate change and biodiversity loss threaten the performance of the markets and economies on which they rely for financial returns, pension funds have a responsibility to consider whether sustainability-related risks will inhibit their ability to protect long-term value and provide an adequate pension to their members or beneficiaries. Accordingly,...

Retirement insecurity 2024 americans’ views of retirement

By Dan Doonan & Kelly Kenneally T he ground is shifting when it comes to retirement. Most Americans are experiencing increased financial pressures "I am scared to be broke." Dream. Eighty-three percent of Americans say that all workers should have a pension so they can be and low levels of retirement savings. Amid growing concerns about Americans’ retirement readiness, policymakers recently enacted measures to help address the grave savings shortfall. On the federal level, Congress passed important retirement legislation in...

Latent Cumulative Disadvantage: US Immigrants’ Reversed Economic Assimilation in Later Life

By Leafia Z Ye One of the most salient findings in research on immigration has been that immigrants experience substantial economic mobility as they accumulate more years in the host-society labor force and eventually approach earnings parity with their native-born counterparts. However, we do not know whether this progress is sustained in retirement. In this paper, I develop a framework of Latent Cumulative (Dis)advantage and hypothesize that even as immigrants are approaching parity with the native-born in terms of current...

March 2024

Financiamiento de las pensiones: Escenarios sobre su carga fiscal a 2030

Por Alejandra Macias Sánchez (CIEP) La presente investigación analiza el financiamiento público de las pensiones y realiza escenarios de proyecciones de gasto, con base en los cambios que se proponen y prometen. Primero, se presenta la composición del gasto público destinado a pensiones. Posteriormente, se explican las iniciativas de reforma y las propuestas para la siguiente administración. Finalmente, se muestran las proyecciones de las pensiones a 2030 y los riesgos de seguir aumentando este gasto. Lee el reporte completo aquí

February 2024

U.S. public pension plans’ average funding ratio declines to 75.4% in 2023: survey

The average funding ratio for U.S. public pension plans declined to 75.4 per cent in 2023, compared to 77.8 per cent in the previous year, according to a new survey by the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems. The report, which was based on responses from nearly 160 public pension funds with roughly US$2.3 trillion in combined assets under management, found the average return for plans was negative 1.9 per cent. The diminished investment returns were attributed to sharp declines...

UK. TPR urges trustees to ‘take stock’ of wider ESG factors

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has urged pension trustees to "take stock" and think about further developing their approach to managing wider environmental social and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities. In a blog post, TPR climate and sustainability lead, Mark Hill, noted that ESG disclosure reporting requirements have expanded, suggesting that this is a trend that looks set to continue as practices around wider sustainability factors, such as nature and social, develop. Whilst Hill acknowledged that climate reporting will already be business...

The Role of AI to Enhance Retirement Savings: The Gender Gap Challenge

By Anabel Martínez Colín AI is the biggest disruptor in the financial sector, where there are many AI solutions at work, and the role of AI over it is well documented. However, the deployment of AI in the pension segment is still at an exploratory stage, and its influence on the gender gap in pensions is still unclear. This research explores the relationship between AI readiness and the gender gap in pensions (GGP), which may also be statistically significant. In addition,...

December 2023

Australia pension funds call for reforms to encourage green energy investment at home

Australian pension funds called on Friday for the government to enact reforms that would make it easier to invest in domestic renewable energy projects and warned that without action investors would opt for more compelling overseas projects. Australia's electricity transmission network, batteries and sustainable aviation fuel are three areas where simplified planning, subsidised finance and other regulatory changes could catalyse investment, according to a report released by eight major pension funds. Changes could quickly unlock A$4 billion ($2.7 billion) worth of...

Nordic pension funds invest more in UK start-ups than British counterparts

Nordic pension funds are now investing more in UK start-ups than their British counterparts, research by Atomico has found. As reported by our sister title, European Pensions, the State of European Tech report found that pension funds from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden collectively contribute USD 88m to UK start-ups, compared to USD 49m from the UK and Ireland combined. In addition, the report found that generally UK pension funds only represent 5 per cent of funds committed to venture...