July 2017

06Jul

Why Uganda should continue with pension sector reform

  The roadmap for reform of Uganda’s pension sector was drawn more than a decade ago. In 2003, the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development constituted the Stakeholders Transition Group (STG) to assist the Government with the development of a comprehensive legal, regulatory and financing framework for social security reforms. Following the STG recommendations another taskforce was established, the Pension Sector Reform Task Force, Chaired by Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MOFPED). The main role of this task...

July 6, 2017
News, OP Ed, Slider
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06Jul

UK’s Ageing population ‘as big an issue as climate change’

The UK’s ageing population is ‘as big an issue as climate change’ according to John Cridland. Former CBI director general Cridland was appointed to review the state pension age (SPA) by the government. He published his report earlier this year. It made a number of recommendations to help the UK deal with the UK's growing pensioner population, including increasing the SPA to 68 quicker than planned. Speaking at an insurance industry conference, Cridland warned more needed to be done to address problems...

July 6, 2017
News, OP Ed, Slider
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May 2017

31May

Nigeria. Not yet independence for Pension Reforms

Before the advent of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) in 2004, it was a common view seeing public officials shedding tears at public functions decrying the plights of pensioners. With the implementation of the Pension Reforms Act 2004 by the Federal Government more than a decade ago, the road may have not been completely smooth even though it is a radical departure from the past defined benefit system. The anxiety over the utilisation of pension assets since the arrival of the...

May 31, 2017
News, OP Ed
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30May

World heading for a pensions crisis, but no quick fix is in sight

Do you know what age you are planning on retiring at? Have you saved up enough money to retire? While these questions may appear simple, the answers are not. A new report from the Word Economic Forum, 'We'll live to 100 - How can we afford it?', takes a more in-depth look at the global pension crisis being faced by governments, and here are five of its key findings. 1. We are living much longer than pension systems were designed to support. Life...

May 30, 2017
News, OP Ed
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29May

US. Who killed retirement security? If you look closely, it wasn’t the 401(k)

“America’s retirement savings system has failed,” famed financial planning author Jane Bryant Quinn has said — and she isn’t short of company. Media articles regularly recount the ways in which Americans, burdened with the responsibility of saving for retirement through 401(k)s, fail to put enough aside for old age. In response, 84 percent of House Democrats have co-sponsored legislation to expand Social Security benefits, while states are hoping to establish their own retirement plans for private sector workers. But here’s the...

May 29, 2017
News, OP Ed
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25May

Are We Ready to Make Decisions for Our Retirement?

PPI’s Op-Ed By Eduardo Rodriguez Montemayor Rapidly aging populations are forcing policymakers to rethink pensions. Defined contribution schemes are quickly becoming the norm, but people don’t yet seem ready for them. Academic evidence from economics and behavioural finance suggest that under many circumstances people may not be ready to take control of retirement savings investment. This is a challenging finding in a context where traditional defined benefit (DB) schemes, (which typically depend on individual salary history and length of service) are waning...

May 25, 2017
Articles, OP Ed, PPI’s original Op-Eds
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22May

US. Government pensions leave retirees, taxpayers in a bind

Underfunded pensions, mainly for government employees, are a disaster waiting to happen, and the concern about underfunded pensions is rising daily as the number of newspaper articles on the topic increases. While most corporate employers shifted from pension plans to 401(k) plans after the early 1980s, governments still offer pensions to employees. Those pensions have left retirees and taxpayers in a bind that has fueled political battles while continuing to enrich investment consultants and managers. The result is that overly...

May 22, 2017
News, OP Ed
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22May

Harness Zimbabwe’s pension funds for economic growth

The Insurance and Pension Commission has revealed that Zimbabwe is sitting on pension fund assets worth close to $10 billion, which can be unlocked to revive the economy. The assets are divided into four main categories - the compulsory scheme administered by the National Social Security Authority, the Public Service Pension Scheme for the civil servants, voluntary occupational pension funds and personal pension plans. According to IPEC, assets under NSSA are worth $800 million, with $6 billion under public sector schemes,...

May 22, 2017
News, OP Ed
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03May

US. The Obama-era workplace retirement plans that the GOP wants to kill

I’m at a loss as to why some Republicans on Capitol Hill want to block the creation of workplace retirement plans for small-business employees. We know that Social Security will soon face some serious funding issues. And with fewer companies offering pensions these days, we know that workers have to save for their own retirement. The percentage of employers still offering a traditional defined benefit plan to new hires has fallen significantly, according to advisory services firm Willis Towers Watson. In...

May 3, 2017
News, OP Ed
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02May

African pension funds see low returns in limited cross-border investment

Pension schemes are finding it difficult to make cross-border investments due to political interference, a Pan-African forum was told in Nairobi last week. Subsequently pension funds hold billions of shillings in unattractive government-linked ventures, thereby denying members higher returns as well as the opportunity to profitably contribute to development. The forum heard that most pension fund trustees are subject to political sway thus making it difficult to innovate new products or investments. Cross-border investments are often considered unpatriotic. The Making Finance Work...

May 2, 2017
News, OP Ed
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