October 2018

04Oct

Kazakhstan: Pension plans darken a grim picture

The government appears eager to shed an onerous and unrewarding responsibility: managing its citizens’ pensions. Authorities in Kazakhstan are set once again to tinker with how pension funds are managed. And if social media and news website comment boards are any indication, people are livid. Since 2013, pension contributions have been held in an entity called the Single Accumulated Savings Fund, or ENPF in its Russian initials. The fund comprises 10 million accounts worth a total of 9 trillion tenge ($25...

October 4, 2018
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04Oct

Financial health of Canadian defined-benefit pension plans hits all-time quarterly high in Q3 2018

Rising bond yields and a continuing strong U.S. equity market helped boost the health of Canadian defined benefit pension plans to the highest level ever recorded, according to the latest quarterly Median Solvency Ratio from Aon, a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions. Quotes: “Aon has been measuring median solvency for the better part of two decades now, and we have never seen quarterly levels this high,” said William da Silva, Senior...

October 4, 2018
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04Oct

Why Americans Are Waiting Longer Before Retiring

We're finally seeing the effects of Social Security changes made in the 1980s. Something significant is happening in Social Security: People are retiring and taking their benefits later. These trends are at least in part the consequence of policy changes made in the early 1980s that were purposefully delayed in their implementation. Consider this: In 1997, 57 percent of men claiming their retirement benefits under Social Security were 62, the earliest age at which one can do so. By 2017, that...

October 4, 2018
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04Oct

Australia. Pension increase: More money for veterans and families

VETERAN pension payments will increase this month in line with the biannual indexation process. Minister for Veterans' Affairs Darren Chester said the increase was about putting veterans and their families first. "Our Government provides more than $11.2 billion each year to deliver essential services and programs to support 290,000 veterans and their families," Mr Chester said. "The new pension rates will be fully effective from pension payday October 11 for pension recipients including veterans, their partners, war widows and widowers across Australia." Single...

October 4, 2018
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03Oct

South Africa. Nearly half of SA’s workforce estimated to have no retirement plan – survey

About 41% of economically active South Africans are estimated not to have any retirement plan in place, according to a survey by 10X Investments. It defines "economically active" people as those with a monthly income of more than R7 600. The survey went out to over a million South Africans and, according to 10X, this serves as a representation of the 11.9 million economically active South Africans in the country. The survey estimates that more than 40% of economically active women across...

October 3, 2018
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03Oct

Greek gov’t submits 2019 state budget draft, agreed pension cuts not included

The Greek government submitted the state budget draft for 2019 on Monday night at the Greek Parliament without including the new pension cuts that were agreed with international creditors under the last bailout program which expired this August. There was no need to slash the pensions from January 1 next year in order to achieve the agreed primary surplus of 3.5 percent GDP for 2019, the Finance Ministry argued in an e-mailed press statement. The satisfactory financial performance of the years...

October 3, 2018
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03Oct

US. International Paper and Prudential Transfer $1.6 Pension Obligation

As part of the PRT agreement, Prudential will assume the responsibility for paying pension benefits to about 23,000 International Paper retirees. International Paper announced plans to settle approximately $1.6 billion of its pension obligations by purchasing a group annuity contract from The Prudential Insurance Company of America. The parties size the pension risk transfer (PRT) deal as the second-largest to take place thus far in 2018, behind a group annuity transaction between MetLife and FedEx that covered some 41,000 retirees and...

October 3, 2018
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03Oct

How can smart buildings help an ageing Asia?

Artificial intelligence, the internet of things and other smart technologies can help to make buildings smarter and more efficient, but can they make cities better places to live for the elderly? The technology of the fourth industrial revolution could make cities smarter than ever. But are smarter cities better for the environment and its residents? This was a central theme at the International Green Building Conference held in Singapore in September, where two panel sessions were dedicated to the topic of...

October 3, 2018
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02Oct

US. The next financial crisis will be brought on by inadequate regulation, top economist says

Economists like Johns Hopkins University's Lawrence Ball have expressed alarm over the Trump administration's efforts to roll back Obama-era regulations put in place in the wake of the 2008 crash, namely the Dodd-Frank Act. But many banking professionals believe it’s time to cast off some of Dodd-Frank’s rules, arguing that allowing lenders to provide more credit would boost the economy. Now, with a greater debt burden than in 2008, record low interest rates and highly accommodative monetary easing,...

October 2, 2018
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02Oct

South African state pension fund’s assets grow 8.6 pct

The value of assets managed by South Africa's state-owned pension fund rose by 8.6 percent in the year to March 2018, supported by a diversified investment strategy, the fund said in its latest annual report on Monday The Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which manages pensions of civil servants and is Africa's biggest pension fund, said assets under its custody grew to 2.08 trillion rand ($147 billion) from 1.91 trillion rand the year before. "Through prudent investment decision-making, underpinned by diversification, robust...

October 2, 2018
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