December 2021
20Dec

UK. Demands to delay rises in the state pension age

Plans to raise the state pension age from 66 should be shelved because we are not living as long as previously expected, a new report has suggested. Current plans would see the age at which people are eligible for the state pension go up to 67 by 2028, and then eventually to 68. Consultant LCP says life expectancy has stalled and no changes should be made for 30 years. The government has just launched its latest review of the state pension age. At...

December 20, 2021
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
20Dec

Leftist millennial Gabriel Boric, that vowed to reform pensions for the poor, is elected president of Chile.

Leftist lawmaker Gabriel Boric, 35, on Sunday became Chile’s youngest-ever president on promises of installing a “welfare state” in one of the world’s most unequal countries. The former student activist only just met the required minimum age to run in the presidential race, seven years after being elected to his first political job as a member of Chile’s Chamber of Deputies. On Sunday, he prevailed over far-right rival Jose Antonio Kast, an ultra-conservative lawyer who had promised to cut taxes and...

December 20, 2021
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
20Dec

PinBox pushes to bring more global workers into retirement savings tent

Gautam Bhardwaj is aiming to get 100 million workers in the informal sectors of India's economy — from Uber drivers to farmers to domestic servants — to start saving for retirement over the next five years. For the co-founder and director of Singapore-based pension-tech provider pinBox Solutions Pte. Ltd., that amounts to a quick pivot from an initial success in Rwanda — where in close collaboration with the government, pinBox helped 1.5 million informal sector workers, a quarter of that...

December 20, 2021
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
20Dec

UK. Enthusiasm for green pensions fails to translate

Although most savers say they want their pension to be invested responsibly, very few people auto enrolled into workplace schemes have moved their investments to sustainable funds. That is according to research by Barnett Waddingham which found one in five savers (20%) said they thought ESG funds should be the default option for workplace pensions, regardless of return. A further 26% said they thought this should be the case so long as the return is the same as a non-ESG fund. Meanwhile,...

December 20, 2021
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
17Dec

U.K. offers pension trustees guidance on climate standards

The Pensions Regulator issued guidance Thursday to help U.K. pension trustees meet new standards for climate-related governance and reporting of both risks and opportunities. Part of trustees' responsibility is making sure that the external advice they get is relevant and competent, the regulator said in a news release. "We recognize that the governance and reporting of climate-related risk is relatively new, so trustees may be more reliant on external experts while they build their scheme's capability in this area," said David...

December 17, 2021
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
17Dec

New EU proposal aims to make long-term investment funds more attractive

Money managers operating in the European Union anticipate an increase in alternative investment opportunities as regulators relax rules for European long-term investment funds. Under the latest proposal to reform the Capital Markets Union — an ongoing initiative aimed at creating a single pan-European financial market — the European Commission is revising how money managers can set up and market European long-term investment funds, known as ELTIFs. These collective investment strategies — currently only offered by certain alternatives money managers —...

December 17, 2021
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
17Dec

Canada. CPPIB targeting high carbon emitters for long-term investments

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is pursuing a new strategy that involves investing in businesses with high greenhouse gas emissions and a desire to reduce them. The strategy, which is published in a new report, aims to identify companies committed to creating value by lowering their emissions in a manner that’s consistent with the CPPIB’s own timeframe. The strategy was devised by Bill Rogers, managing director and head of sustainable energies; Mike Conrad, principal in sustainable energies; and Art Pithayachariyakul,...

December 17, 2021
News, Slider, , , ,
Read more...
16Dec

US. Record Returns Not Enough to Ensure Public Pension Stability

Despite logging average returns of 27.5% during fiscal year 2021, state pension plans still face a large funding shortfall and might have billions more in unfunded liabilities not yet recognized on their books, according to a recent report from nonprofit Equable Institute. “This past year has been an incredibly helpful boost to state pension funds that spent a decade mired in mediocrity,” Equable Institute Executive Director Anthony Randazzo said in a statement. “But even a nearly $400 billion improvement in...

December 16, 2021
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
16Dec

UK. WPC launches inquiry into saving for later life

The Work and Pensions Committee (WPC) has launched the third and final part of its inquiry into the impact of the pension freedoms and protection of savers, focusing on what needs to be done to help people plan and save for retirement. The inquiry, which will be hearing evidence until 2 February 2022, will consider whether households have adequate pension savings and how the government can improve member outcomes. In particular, it will consider issues around auto-enrolment, retirement income targets and...

December 16, 2021
News, Slider, , , ,
Read more...
16Dec

UK. 48% of retirees worried about pension adequacy

Almost half (48 per cent) of retirees are worried that they may eventually run out of money in retirement, yet 41 per cent have no plan as to how much they should be spending each year to avoid this issue, research from Abrdn has revealed. The survey showed that 24 per cent of retirees, around 3 million Brits, were expecting to boost their savings with inheritance, whilst 33 per cent, equal to around 4 million retirees, plan to downsize to...

December 16, 2021
News, Slider, ,
Read more...