March 2024

Chile. Actualizan número de personas que quedó $0 o con menos de $200 mil en la AFP tras los retiros del 10%

Por Verónica Reyes   La Superintendencia de Pensiones (SP) difundió algunas cifras actualizadas ligadas a lo que fueron los retiros del 10% desde las cuentas de capitalización individual de las AFP. Cabe recordar que, luego de eso último, la Ley Nº 21.339 permitió a las personas acceder a un bono de hasta $200 mil sólo bajo dos circunstancias: si luego de los retiros sus cuentas en las AFP quedaron con $0 o un monto inferior a $200 mil. En un periodo de vigencia del beneficio pudieron...

Colombia. La oposición frena el avance de la reforma pensional de Gustavo Petro en el Congreso

Por Juan Miguel Hernández Bonilla La reforma pensional del Gobierno está estancada en la plenaria del Senado. La oposición al presidente Gustavo Petro ha logrado frenar en seco el avance del articulado que busca cambiar el sistema pensional colombiano para reforzar la presencia del fondo público y ayudar a garantizar el derecho a la pensión de más de dos millones y medio de adultos mayores pobres. Este miércoles, el Centro Democrático y Cambio Radical han roto el cuórum decisorio, la...

February 2024

Urgent Action Needed Amidst U.S. State Pension Debt Crisis

By Howie Jones   The United States is grappling with a severe state pension debt crisis, with a whopping $1.49 trillion in unfunded obligations causing significant economic strain. Areas like San Jose are particularly affected, facing a staggering unpaid debt of $3.5 billion, potentially leading to a tax burden of around $3,600 per resident. This crisis could drastically impact the public sector, potentially decreasing the quality and availability of public services. San Jose’s Odd Fellows society recently held a community improvement forum...

Uganda Parliament Pensions Scheme to Reduce Equity Investments in Kenya

By Kenyan WallStreet   Uganda’s Parliamentary Pensions Scheme (PPS) is considering reducing its investments in Kenya due to macroeconomic challenges. The scheme’s total equity assets stand at UShs. 24 billion, out of which two percent is in Kenya. In its most recent financials, the scheme reported a gross investment income UShs. 55 billion and total assets of 425 billion. The growth in total assets marked a significant growth from UShs. 349 billion in 2021/2022 to Shs. 425billion in 2022/2023. “We…propose to reduce...

Is This Big Risk Lurking in Your Social Security Claiming Math?

By: John Manganaro     ThinkAdvisor published the latest in an ongoing series of Social Security claiming case studies earlier this month, finding the optimal claiming scenario for the sample married couple at hand would be to draw their benefits earlier than the maximum claiming age of 70. That result, based mainly on the fact that the couple had a highly uneven earnings history and a small but meaningful gap in longevity expectations, surprised some readers, and it sparked a number of insightful discussions with both...

Repensar la desigualdad en Latinoamérica

Por: ANA MARIA IBÁÑEZ Casi todo el mundo está de acuerdo en que la distribución desigual del ingreso, la riqueza y las oportunidades en América Latina y el Caribe (ALC) ha obstaculizado los esfuerzos por construir sociedades cohesivas y democracias sólidas, además de frustrar las ambiciones de los jóvenes. Pero los esfuerzos por cerrar la brecha entre ricos y pobres han sido insuficientes y el progreso se ha estancado. Los gobiernos necesitan urgentemente mejores pruebas sobre cómo remediar este problema de...

South Africa. GEPF warns of fake letters with respect to pension payments

By Staff Reporter   Scammers are trying to defraud government workers of their pension money via SMS by encouraging them to resign rather than retire, the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) has warned. GEPF is the largest pension fund in Africa with more than 1.2 million active members and about 500 000 pensioners and beneficiaries. The fund is responsible for more than R2.3 trillion in assets under its management. GEPF said it was recently made aware of fraudulent letters being sent to its...

Canadian funds tapping into investment opportunities in Brazil

By PALASH GHOSH   Canadian pension funds have been investing in Brazil, a huge country that boasts a growing $2.1 trillion economy, the largest such economy in Latin America and an especially attractive target for infrastructure and energy investments, as evidenced by the recent agreement by Caisse de Depot et Placement du Québec to increase its stake in a natural gas transmission firm. Ironically, Brazil jumped two spots last year to surpass Canada itself as the globe's ninth biggest economy, the International Monetary...

January 2024

Where Pension Incentive Pay Makes Sense — and Doesn’t

By Girard Miller To continue a theme I introduced in my last column, the compensation structures for public pension professionals will need a tune-up if we expect them to deliver superior investment returns. The first steps toward performance improvement don’t require a lot of money — just a willingness to bump up the salaries of those with proven investment IQs as demonstrated through relevant credentialing programs. Beyond that, however, it gets much trickier for the plans seeking to deliver optimal performance in...

December 2023

UK. Good News — The UK’s Pensions Black Hole Is No More

By John Stepek   Welcome to Money Distilled. I’m John Stepek. Every week day I look at the biggest stories in markets and economics, and explain what it all means for your money. The good news on UK corporate pensions Merryn talks to Kokou Agbo-Bloua, global head of economics, cross-asset and quant research about the outlook for 2024, and why he thinks a slowdown in the US is inevitable. But what should you buy? There was a story over on our Markets Live blog yesterday that caught my eye, as I’d missed...