June 2020
03Jun

Coronavirus impact improves sustainability of Spanish pension system

Spain saw a rare improvement in the long-term sustainability of its pension system in May, but the data gave no cause for celebration because it was mainly the result of the coronavirus crisis and increased deaths among the elderly. Read also Chile’s pension system is changing for the worse Spain has been among European countries worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic, with the death toll now at 27,127. More than 80% of fatalities have been people aged 70 and older....

June 3, 2020
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02Jun

Greece. Significant raise for 236,000 auxiliary pensions

As of Tuesday, more than 236,000 pensioners will see their auxiliary pensions increased by an average of 75.47 euros, according to estimates by the Single Social Security Entity (EFKA). The hikes only concern retirees who saw their auxiliary benefits reduced in the summer of 2016 per the so-called Katrougalos law because the sum of their main and auxiliary pensions exceeded €1,300. The biggest category of raise recipients is the 206,000 former salary workers insured with the Social Security Foundation...

June 2, 2020
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May 2020
29May

Allianz pension report 2020 the silver swan

By Allianz Even before the Covid-19 outbreak, societies were becoming more and more fragmented over several social fault lines: culture, education, wealth, place of residence. Many of these overlap: The cosmopolitan, well-educated, wealthy people live in (big) cities, whereas more conservative, low-skilled workers tend to live in the periphery. There is, however, one important social fault line that cuts through all these identities: the generation gap. With demographic and climate change (and now the coronavirus pandemic), the generational...

May 29, 2020
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23May

Golden Aging: Prospects for Healthy, Active and Prosperous Aging in Europe and Central Asia

By Maurizio Bussolo, Johannes Koettl & Emily Sinnott The Europe and Central Asia region has among the oldest populations in the world. Europe, in particular, is approaching the end of a demographic transition toward population stabilization, and Central Asia, although still younger, is following quickly. Aging in Europe and Central Asia is different from that in Western Europe and East Asia in that populations are aging, while people are not necessarily living longer. The rise in the average age is largely attributable to...

May 23, 2020
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22May

How People React to Pension Risk

By Nicolas Salamanca, Andries De Grip, Olaf Sleijpen We show that people exposed to greater pension risk are less likely to invest in risky assets. We exploit a reform that links people’s future pension benefits to their pension funds’ funding ratio — a measure of the fund’s financial health — making funding ratios a fund-specific measure of pension risk. The effect of pension risk is stronger for people who are better informed about their pensions, for retirees and pension-age...

May 22, 2020
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21May

Large European companies fall short on ESG disclosure – report

Many of Europe's largest public companies are not adequately disclosing their environmental and climate-related risks, according to a report being released Tuesday by the Climate Disclosure Standards Board. The CDSB looked at Europe's 50 largest companies, with a combined market cap of $4.3 trillion, and found that in 2019, despite European Union reporting guidelines, 78% of them did not adequately report climate and environmental risks, and 42% omitted potentially material environmental or climate-related information for their sector. Also, 1...

May 21, 2020
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20May

UK. True scale of pension scams unknown, think tank warns

The "true scale" of pension scams remains unknown as only a minority are reported and data is not collected in comparable ways across the industry, the Pensions Policy Institute has warned. A policy paper from the PPI, published yesterday (May 19), found data available about the number of scams taking place across the industry, as well as the amount lost in each scam, did not offer a comprehensive view of the true scale of the issue. It warned this...

May 20, 2020
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19May

ESG regulations and their impact on advice

There are regulatory changes afoot in the world of responsible investment, which are going to have a fundamental impact on the advice process. Since 2018, there have been over 170 ESG (environmental, social and governance) related regulatory measures proposed globally - that is more than the previous six years combined. In 2018, the European Union also published a recommendation to make ESG investing easier across Europe. This was through the European Commission making a formal request to the...

May 19, 2020
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18May

UK. Pension savers unable to move their cash as trustees use emergency powers

Savers who want to ditch defined benefit pensions as their employers struggle to survive may find themselves trapped by trustees using emergency powers to halt transfers. Businesses facing financial hardship have been the first to see trustees of their staff pension funds block members from moving their cash for three months during the pandemic. This stops anyone wanting to transfer out of defined benefit pensions, which pay a guaranteed income in retirement, into more flexible but riskier “defined...

May 18, 2020
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18May

EC summons Netherlands for taxing pensions moving abroad

The European Commission has summoned the Netherlands to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for taxing pensions moving abroad. It argued that the taxation conflicts with the principle of free movement of capital. According to the EC, workers must be able to transfer pension capital to another member state, even if the country of destination allows taking out a lump sum of up to the entire pension entitlement. Twelve member states, including Germany, Belgium and Denmark, have already introduced...

May 18, 2020
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