October 2019

28Oct

Chile president lifts state of emergency, protests continue

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera on Monday ended a state of emergency that lasted more than a week amid mass protests, but demonstrations continued nonetheless. The decision to lift the decree at midnight, just two days after more than a million people took to the country''s streets demanding economic and political change, comes after the equally unpopular week-long nighttime curfews ended on Saturday. Authorities imposed both the state of emergency and curfews last weekend after Chile was rocked by its...

October 28, 2019
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28Oct

UK. MPs call for end to freeze on State pension for half a million expats living outside of Europe

Pension payments to British expats living in Europe will rise in line with inflation But the same does not apply to payments for pensioners living further afield More than 40 MPs are calling on the Government to overturn the move More than 40 MPs are calling on the Government to overturn an enduring injustice affecting State pension payments to half a million UK nationals living overseas. The cross-party group is sending an open letter to Therese Coffey, the Secretary...

October 28, 2019
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25Oct

Don’t Save for Retirement: A Millennial’s Guide to Financial Freedom

By Daniel Ameduri Baby boomers are always giving millennials advice on the importance of saving for retirement. But Daniel Ameduri says that the results are in for the retirement experiment of the last 75 years and they’re really bad. When he was twenty-seven years old, Daniel was on the brink of bankruptcy. A decade later, he’s a multi-millionaire, having taught himself about economics, investing, and other money matters that he never learned at school or at home. The expert...

October 25, 2019
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25Oct

Essentials of Pension Economics

By Sergio Nisticò This Palgrave Pivot provides a concise overview of pension systems which, whether paid by governments or by private companies, are the sole source of income for millions of people around the world. By 2050, two billion elderly people will have to be ensured some form of income while, at the same time, the prospect facing younger generations is of a gloomy future. This book breaks down the jargon, investigates different designs and analyses these designs'...

October 25, 2019
Aging, Books, Sustainability,
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25Oct

Measuring Household Wealth in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics: The Role of Retirement Assets

By Daniel Cooper, Karen E. Dynan, Hannah Rhodenhiser While the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) has much to offer researchers studying household behavior, one limitation is that its summary measure of wealth is not as broad as those of other commonly used surveys, such as the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), because it does not include the value of defined-contribution (DC) pensions. This paper describes the pension data available in the PSID and shows how they can be...

October 25, 2019
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25Oct

Social Pensions and Market Values: A Conflict?

By Quentin Detienne, Elmar Schmidt Social occupational pension schemes, i.e. compulsory pension schemes that are the result of collective bargaining, fulfil an important social function. At the same time, they seem to conflict with some fundamental single market tenets, such as the European Union (EU) Single Market’s four fundamental freedoms and competition law principles. In this respect, occupational pension schemes in the Member States seem to embody the inherent tensions contained within the EU’s social market economy: a clash...

October 25, 2019
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25Oct

Secure Retirement: Connecting Financial Theory and Human Behavior

By Jacques Lussier Investors fear return uncertainty and drawdowns associated with owning relatively risky asset classes, such as equity. The fact that greater risk is associated with greater expected return does not preclude the possibility that realized returns may be far less than a low-risk asset could provide, even with horizons as long as 5 to 10 years. Fear prompts the average investor to sometimes act against his own best interest. Therefore, the average investor’s portfolio often underperforms a...

October 25, 2019
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25Oct

UK. Watchdog hails success of auto-enrolment pensions

Regulators and financial experts are hailing a rare public policy success after figures on Britain’s “auto-enrolment” scheme revealed 10 million more people are now saving, with record amounts going into pensions. British workers saved £90.4bn into their pension schemes in 2018, according to the Pensions Regulator – £7bn more than the year before. Behind the surge in saving is auto-enrolment, the scheme set up by the government in 2012 to make sure everyone, whether they work for a supermarket...

October 25, 2019
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25Oct

Germany: Age Limits For Occupational Pensions Not Discriminatory Against Women

The Federal Constitutional Court clarified that maximum age limits for occupational pension benefits do not violate the general principle of equality. This confirms the jurisdiction of the Federal Labor Court, according to which maximum age limits for occupational pension schemes do not constitute age discrimination or even discrimination against women. Federal Constitutional Court, Non-acceptance order July 23, 2019 – Case 1 BvR 684/14 The complainant had initially retired from gainful employment due to the birth of her child and...

October 25, 2019
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25Oct

Ireland. Defusing the pension time bomb

The Government’s recently published “National Risk Assessment 2019” identified Ireland’s rapidly-ageing population as a significant risk to a number of essential areas. There is talk from some quarters that the State pension will eventually disappear due to rising costs. Is this simply scaremongering from those with skin in the game, or should people be fearfu for the future of a cherished benefit? Aisling Kelly, senior healthcare consultant at Mercer, says she is not of the opinion that the State...

October 25, 2019
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