December 2021
02Dec

Bosnia miners end 9-day protest after clinching wage, pension deal

About 7,000 miners will return to work at Bosnia's seven coal mines after securing a deal with the government and state-owned Elektroprivreda BiH (EPBiH) power utility on wages and pensions, officials said on Wednesday, bringing to an end a 9-day protest. The miners halted work last week in support of colleagues who were protesting in the capital Sarajevo against what they said were violations of work and pay regulations. EPBiH General Manager Admir Andelija said at the time that power production...

December 2, 2021
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01Dec

Latin America and the Caribbean is ageing rapidly, however the projections may be better than expected

The region is projected to experience a rapid change in its population’s age structure. The proportion of citizens older than 65 will more than double in the next three decades. However, rethinking ageing in terms of health is crucial to inform public policy, argue Diego Wachs (LSE) and Andres Roman Urrestarazu (Stanford University). Read also Private pension plans in Latin America and sustainable finance Latin America and the Caribbean will experience a rapid change in their population structure over the next...

December 1, 2021
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01Dec

UK pensions regulator signs off on first ‘superfund’

UK pension regulators have given a green light to the first “super fund”, a new and controversial integrated vehicle designed to take over the operation of traditional pension schemes. Clara Pentions, which is dominated by reinsurance firm Wilton Li and investment firm Six Street, will be the first superfund to get regulatory approval on Tuesday.Regulators in the name of Clara list The number of superfunds that are considered to have good governance, good and good management, and good capital. Approval of...

December 1, 2021
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01Dec

US. Treasury Sets 2021 Retirement Plan Amendment Deadlines

The IRS has issued its required amendments list for 2021, setting deadlines for changes in qualification requirements for employee benefit plans and end-dates for remedial amendment periods. The remedial amendment period lets employers retroactively fix plan modifications that inadvertently altered their tax status. Generally, employers have until the end of 2023 to make those changes for 2021 amendments. The required amendments pertain to individually designed retirement plans and 403(b) group annuity plans but exclude government-sponsored health and retirement benefits. Read more @Bloomberg...

December 1, 2021
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01Dec

How Staying Physically Active May Protect the Aging Brain

Staying physically active as we age substantially drops our risk of developing dementia during our lifetimes, and it doesn’t require prolonged exercise. Walking or moving about, rather than sitting, may be all it takes to help bolster the brain, and a new study of octogenarians from Chicago may help to explain why. The study, which tracked how often older people moved or sat and then looked deep inside their brains after they passed away, found that certain vital immune cells...

December 1, 2021
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01Dec

UK universities hit by strike action over pay and pensions

More than a million students will be hit by three days of strikes on campuses across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland starting on Wednesday, in the latest round of an increasingly bitter dispute in which university leaders have accused leftwingers within the University and College Union (UCU) of blocking progress over a possible deal. Fifty-eight universities will be affected where staff backed a ballot on strike action called by the UCU, halting lectures and tuition at the country’s largest universities,...

December 1, 2021
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01Dec

US. Corporate pension buyouts hit $15.8 billion in Q3 LIMRA survey

Pension buy-in transactions, in which an insurer reimburses the company for benefit payments the plan will make to its retirees and beneficiaries, are very common in the U.K., but rare in the U.S. Mark Paracer, assistant research director at the Secure Retirement Institute, said in a news release Tuesday that the combined year-to-date volume for buyout and buy-in sales of $25 billion sets the stage for the U.S. pension risk transfer market to exceed the record $36 billion set in...

December 1, 2021
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November 2021
30Nov

Why Is Africa’s Largest Pension Pulling Out of Africa’s Largest Asset Management Firm?

Africa’s largest pension, the South Africa-based Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), allowed its contract with the country’s Public Investment Corporation (PIC) to lapse, effectively pulling $4.4 billion out of the continent’s largest asset manager. Read also Here Are The Regulatory Changes In The Kenyan Pensions Industry For the $110 billion pension, this equates to approximately 4% of its total assets under management (AUM). The contract was five years long and expired this past March. Read also Bosnia miners end 9-day protest after...

November 30, 2021
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30Nov

UK government floats plan to relax fee limit on pension fund investments

A fee limit protecting UK retirement savers from high charges is poised to be loosened further under proposals aimed at prompting pension funds to put billions of pounds into unlisted investments like private equity. On Tuesday the government will announce plans to allow “well-designed” performance fees, typically levied by private equity and venture capital managers, to be excluded from a workplace pension fee cap, according to details of the proposal seen by the Financial Times. These fees are currently included in...

November 30, 2021
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30Nov

US. The Importance of Good Data for DB Plan PRT Activities

It’s important for plan sponsors to have clean data on defined benefit (DB) plan participants to help them identify and validate deaths, locate participants and beneficiaries, and manage uncashed checks, according to speakers at a webinar, “The Data Dilemma: The Impact Bad Data Has on a Pension Plan,” presented by Pension Benefit Information (PBI) Research Services and DIETRICH. Mike Irey, director of operations at PBI Research, told webinar attendees that plans can have inaccurate or missing personal identifiable information (PII)...

November 30, 2021
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