April 2020

COVID-19 – an ageing world makes it harder to fight pandemics

By Andrew Scott The global fight against COVID-19 has triggered a surge of interest in the 1918 to 1920 influenza pandemic that killed more than 50 million people around the world. But while we can learn lessons from the past, we must recognise what is different this time and tailor our response accordingly. Read also US. How The Pandemic Is Making The Retirement Crisis Worse — And What To Do About It Above all, society is ageing. In 2018, for the first time in...

Africa’s demographic transition

The median age of Africans is currently 19 years. For comparison, Europe’s median age is 43 years and Asia’s 32. But this is going to change. In the coming decades the proportion of older people in some African countries will come close to rates experienced currently in industrialised countries. While this might be news to some people, it has been a long time coming. There has been a steady increase over the past 40 years in the number of...

Is quarantine like early retirement? These people think so

Shelter-in-place orders have urged most Americans to stay home, freeing hours of time otherwise spent commuting or working at an office. They’re also getting creative about how they use this time, including running around the neighborhood, learning a new language, taking long walks with their dogs and cooking more. Some Reddit users say if this is what early retirement is like, they’re ready. “I sleep in and wake up on my own every day. I watch some news/TV, take...

The Future of Pension Plans in the EU Internal Market: Coping with Trade-Offs Between Social Rights and Capital Markets

By Nazaré da Costa Cabral, Nuno Cunha Rodrigues This edited volume takes a closer look at various European pension-plan models and the recent challenges, trends and predictions related to the design of such schemes. The contributors analyse new ideas, both from national governments and European institutions, and consider current debates on topics such as the Capital Markets Union (CMU) and the so-called ‘European Pillar of Social Rights’ – calling for a new approach to social policy at the...

March 2020

Ageing populations expected to impact fiscal policies, says Moody’s

Population ageing is expected to raise the debt and financing requirements of many advanced economies in the coming decades, according to a report by Moody’s Investors Service released on March 4. In addition, a shrinking labour force and lower private domestic savings due to a growing ageing population will constrain funding for governments in those economies. The report notes that the twin pressures of shrinking labour force and lower private domestic savings will leave politically challenging fiscal consolidation,...

February 2020

Coronavirus, Global Aging & How Future Contagions May Affect Life In Retirement

The Novel Coronavirus is spreading. So is fear. Despite our alleged rational, technologically-advanced, and informed era – fear changes everything. Unfortunately, the fear factor around the current and future global contagions is likely to grow exponentially and is likely to disproportionately affect the lives and wellbeing of older people. News of the Coronavirus has spread far ahead of the contagion itself. Nearly every news source has headlined the virus. As of this writing, nearly 800 million hits can...

UK. The rising cost of care

What does the chart show? The disposable incomes of pensioners aged 65 to 74 after direct taxes are likely to increase by 1.9 per cent a year over the next 10 years — to give an average annual income of £41,500. However, with the average weekly cost of nursing care for self-funders at £1,035, the majority of retired households requiring these services cannot afford to pay the annual fees of £53,820 out of their income, according to research by Irwin...

How Japan and Singapore are reinventing old age

A new demographic dividend – the “longevity dividend” – is emerging as populations age; Singapore, one of the most rapidly ageing populations in the world, and Japan, where around 25% of the population is older than 65, are already responding to this demographic shift and benefit from it; From innovative retirement income and care programmes, Japan and Singapore's governments are already seeing positive results. Also Read Mongolian commercial banks resume providing loans to pensioners Demographic change has favoured economic...

Death or Bust? The Risk with Post-Retirement Models: A Quantitative Evaluation

By Ross Pepperell, ,David Greenwood, Muhamed Alsharman The purpose of this report is to quantitatively evaluate whether commonly used models of asset returns pose a threat to the successful retirement of retirees. In doing so, we evaluate the whether the 4% ‘safe’ withdrawal rule holds with more realistic models of market behaviour. Our approach comprises a quantitative evaluation seven of the most common portfolio simulation approaches including: Simple analytic formula; Historical backtesting; Bootstrapping; Analytic Stochastic; Simple Monte Carlo; Filtered...

Marketing To 100-Year-Olds: How Longevity Will Transform Finance, Healthcare And Education

Right now, Stanford University is addressing a pressing and fascinating question: What happens to society when everyone starts living to 100? How will we stay physically fit, financially stable and mentally sharp, especially in that back half? Exploring these questions is the goal of the Stanford Longevity Project. Also Read A low birth rate and a rapidly ageing population: Europe’s demographic crisis explained To answer them, they’ve partnered with major brands like Wells Fargo, Instructure, and Principal to...