August 2020

11Aug

Switzerland. Pension reform initiative runs out of steam at early stage

The campaigners announced they had failed to collect the required minimum number of signatures and saw no chances of doing so by the deadline in early October. “Without any doubt I have been miscalculating a few things. The coronavirus did the rest for us,” said the main promoter of the initiative. Josef Bachmann said citizens were aware of the flaws in the current system, but under the restrictions imposed to fight the pandemic, it was much more difficult to...

August 11, 2020
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10Aug

UK. Pension leaders file complaint over FCA ‘advice trap’

Pensions industry representatives have written a joint complaint to government ministers over new guidance from the Financial Conduct Authority, which they warn could see trustees deemed to be giving regulated financial advice. Read also UK. TPR responds to questions on their effectiveness on a pension scam case to WPC The Association of Consulting Actuaries, the Pensions Administration Standards Association, the Pensions Management Institute and the Society of Pension Professionals wrote to Guy Opperman, minister for pensions and financial inclusion, and...

August 10, 2020
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10Aug

Nigeria. Hope rises for annuity business

For more than 10 years, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and the National Pension Commission (PenCom) struggled to find a common ground for the operation of life annuity business. A conflicting regulation between the duo caused various challenges of compliance. It came to a head in 2017, when both government agencies headed by the former Commissioner for Insurance, Mohammed Kari and Director-General, PenCom, Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu bickered, leading to the intervention of the former Minister of Finance, Mrs....

August 10, 2020
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10Aug

Multi-Manager For DC Plans: How To Hit The Sweet Spot, Even In Volatile Markets

How a multi-manager investment approach to defined-contribution plans can help support good decisions - and potentially great investment outcomes - amid difficult times. In markets like these, the value of a smooth ride of investment returns is easy to understand. The greatest responsibility of plan sponsors is to support the achievement of great investment outcomes. For the first time in years, the cycle of investor sentiment has turned decisively toward fear. The halting of economic activity precipitated by the...

August 10, 2020
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07Aug

How Much to Save? Decision Costs and Retirement Plan Participation

By Jacob Goldin, Tatiana Alexandra Homonoff, Richard Patterson, Bill Skimmyhorn Deciding how much to save for retirement can be complicated. Drawing on a field experiment conducted with the Department of Defense, we study whether such complexity depresses participation in an employer-sponsored retirement saving plan. We find that simplifying one dimension of the enrollment decision, by highlighting a potential rate at which non-participants might contribute, increases participation in the plan. Similar communications that did not include a highlighted rate yield...

August 7, 2020
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07Aug

Are Dutch Old-Age Pensions Taxed Fairly and Efficiently?

By Bernd Genser, Robert Holzmann The Dutch pension system is internationally top-ranked as a well-designed three-pillar system. Moreover, almost all forms of pension benefits are expenditure taxed in line with the European Commission's recommendations. Consequently, the Dutch pension policy approach could be regarded as a welcome blueprint for pension policy reform, currently on the agenda of all EU member countries. This paper focuses on the taxation of Dutch pensions and identifies two classes of problems that challenge the suitability...

August 7, 2020
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07Aug

Eskom Pact Won’t Include Pledge to Use State Worker Pensions

A pact between South Africa’s government, labor unions and business to cut the debt of the stricken national power utility won’t include a pledge to use the pensions of state workers as had been initially proposed. An agreement due to be signed at the next meeting of the President’s Working Council has no firm undertaking to use the funds of the 2.1 trillion rand ($120 billion) Public Investment Corp., which manages state workers’ retirement money, or private pensions, said...

August 7, 2020
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07Aug

Sorry, But The World’s Best Pension Funds Are Canadian: McGill University & CEM Benchmarking

Canada’s pension funds are beating peers globally in investment performance and are stronger at hedging against liability risks, according to research from McGill University and CEM Benchmarking. Their success is partly explained by the fact they are more likely to manage their assets in-house, McGill researchers Sebastien Betermier and Quentin Spehner, along with CEM’s Alexander Beath and Chris Flynn, wrote in a July paper. The authors’ findings are based on a study of pensions, endowments, and sovereign wealth...

August 7, 2020
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07Aug

AIG expands pension risk transfer reinsurance activities in Q2

American International Group (AIG), the global insurance and reinsurance player, has expanded its activities in the pension risk transfer space during the second-quarter of this year. Reporting its results recently, AIG highlighted the Life and Retirement business segment as one experiencing strong premium growth. AIG explained that its Life and Retirement division recorded income of $881 million, down $168 million compared to the prior year quarter driven by private equity losses, continued spread compression on the investment portfolio and...

August 7, 2020
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06Aug

Netherlands, Denmark, Australia Rated World’s Top Pension Systems

The Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia were ranked as the top three pension systems by country, according to a report from Visual Capitalist. Meanwhile, Thailand, Argentina, and Turkey were ranked the worst. Read also Young Australians are raiding their super. What does this mean for their future? Rounding out the top 10 systems were Finland, Sweden, Norway, Singapore, New Zealand, Canada, and Chile. The United States ranked 17th. Read also India. Panel on labour suggests social protection for informal workers The report...

August 6, 2020
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