August 2020

06Aug

Canada. Government releases draft pension and deferred salary leave plan regulations

As part of the government of Canada’s COVID-19 Economic Response Plan, on July 2 the Department of Finance Canada announced the release of proposed draft regulations that would amend the Income Tax Regulations (draft regulations) in order to assist sponsors of registered pension plans (RPPs) and deferred salary leave plans (DSLPs) during the COVID-19 pandemic, through the provision of temporary relief from certain requirements under the Income Tax Act. The draft regulations address the following matters: Adding stop-the-clock rules...

August 6, 2020
News, Slider, , , ,
Read more...
05Aug

Your Pension May Be Gambling On Human Life, Profiting From COVID Deaths

Whether you know it or not, your pension may be gambling on highly-speculative life settlement funds which profit when people die prematurely from COVID. Life settlement funds are controversial for a host of obvious and not-so-obvious reasons. Read also Coronavirus is creating retirement insecurity. These 10 steps can diffuse the timebomb of an ageing population These investments in a pension ensuring the retirement security of workers is doubly problematic. Many public and private pensions are gambling on highly speculative funds...

August 5, 2020
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
05Aug

Retirement anxiety heightened by COVID-19

The song “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” describes how people feel about retirement these days. That’s the song chosen by nearly half of the respondents in a survey released on July 29 by the Alliance for Lifetime Income, a nonprofit educating Americans about protected lifetime income in retirement. Most people surveyed (7 out of 10) say “the pandemic has made them more pessimistic about their retirement plans” (with 63% being somewhat more pessimistic and 7% much more...

August 5, 2020
News, Slider, , , ,
Read more...
04Aug

Coronavirus is creating retirement insecurity. These 10 steps can diffuse the timebomb of an ageing population

To redesign a retirement that builds the necessary financial resilience for longer lives, the World Economic Forum and Mercer have created a ten-point checklist to redesign retirement. Safeguarding financial wellness requires an all-encompassing view of a person. This means considering their tangible assets (including savings and property), but also less tangible assets such as health, skills and career readiness to work longer. It will also require coordinated efforts across stakeholder groups, including individuals, employers, financial services providers and governments....

August 4, 2020
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
04Aug

Women Are Leading Latin America’s Fintech Revolution

Finance services is an industry that has been particularly male-dominated, with women holding less than 10 percent of senior positions. Despite predictions that the fintech industry could disrupt the gender balance in the traditional finance sector, female leadership in fintech remains low in most of the world. Read also How to Improve Women’s Retirement Savings: Brookings In Latin America, however, women are stepping up as fintech leaders, with five times as many female-founded fintechs as the global average. The Latin...

August 4, 2020
News, Slider, , , ,
Read more...

July 2020

31Jul

COVID-19 Pandemic to Intensify Risks for Insurers: EU Regulator

Insurers in the European Union are confronted with risks on several fronts that are intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic, and could face lengthy legal battles from claims relating to lockdowns, the bloc’s insurance watchdog said on Thursday. Read also Jamaica. COVID Economic Task Force Favours Lifting Pension Investment Limits Insurers and reinsurers had a “solid and comfortable” capital buffer going into the crisis, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) said in a Financial Stability Report. However, a high...

July 31, 2020
News, Slider, , , ,
Read more...
30Jul

Greece to return 1.4 bln euros to pensioners hit during debt crisis

Greece will this year return 1.4 billion euros to pensioners whose income was slashed during the financial crisis of the past decade, the country's prime minister said on Wednesday. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' conservative government made the decision following a top court ruling which said that some pension cuts imposed in 2015-2016 were illegal. Mitsotakis said the one-off payment applies only to main pensions - not supplementary pensions or benefits. The money will be distributed to about 2 million...

July 30, 2020
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
30Jul

Best quarter on record for Canadian defined benefit pension plans: RBC Investor & Treasury Services

Canadian defined benefit pension plans experienced a pronounced upsurge in the second quarter, posting a median return of 9.6 per cent, according to the RBC Investor & Treasury Services All Plan Universe. This marked the highest single quarter return in the universe's history, reversing the steep Q1 losses and raising the median plan's return to 1.4 per cent on a year-to-date basis. The gains followed a series of aggressive fiscal and monetary support measures introduced in March to...

July 30, 2020
News, Slider, , , ,
Read more...
29Jul

Chilean president reshuffles cabinet over pension reform

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera reshuffled his cabinet Tuesday, replacing interior, foreign, defense and several other ministers following the defeat of a pension reform bill. Victor Perez was appointed interior minister, replacing Gonzalo Blumel, while Andres Allamand was appointed foreign minister and Mario Desbordes took over the post of defense minister. The reshuffle came after the congress passed a controversial pension reform bill last week, allowing Chileans to withdraw 10 percent of their pensions to help overcome the difficulties brought...

July 29, 2020
News, Slider, , , ,
Read more...
28Jul

UK. Pension savers remain cautious during Coronavirus pandemic

The number of pension savers choosing to drawdown money from their pension fell by 42% in April 2020 compared to the same month last year. The latest data published by trade body the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has also shown the number of people taking a tax-free lump from their pension more than halved (-53%), while those withdrawing their entire pension fell by 30%. Figures for March 2020 had already started to show this cautious trend, as 15%...

July 28, 2020
News, Slider, , , ,
Read more...