November 2019

14Nov

UK. Pensioners lose decades of savings in 24 hours

As part of a campaign called ScamSmart, the UK Financial Conduct Authority and The Pensions Regulator have revealed £82,000 (AU$154,202) is the average amount victims of pension scams lost in 2018. It would take an ordinary working saver 22 years to amass that amount, according to the FCA. Despite the significant cost of scams, 24% of people surveyed admitted to deciding on a pension offer within less than 24 hours. One of the main warning signs of a scam...

November 14, 2019
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13Nov

Zimbabwe. NSSA increases pension payouts

The National Social Security Authority (NSSA) has more than doubled its minimum pensions from $80 to $200 a month, while workers' compensation scheme minimum pensions have been tripled from $80 to $240. Read also The Monetary Benefit of Delaying Retirement The increases have been backdated to October 1 with the payments due from today. NSSA funeral grants on all schemes have been pushed up from $300 to $2 000. In a statement yesterday, NSSA board chairman Dr Cuthbert Chidoori said...

November 13, 2019
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13Nov

British expats face losing £50k with pension freeze

The 666,000 retired expats who live in Europe and a handful of countries further afield, such as the US, Jamaica and the Philippines see their payments regularly uprated. But 528,000 have their pensions frozen, the vast majority of them living in Commonwealth countries including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. The state pension only increases annually if a person lives in the European Economic Area (EEA), Gibraltar, Switzerland, and countries that have a social security agreement with the...

November 13, 2019
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12Nov

Switzerland. Aging in good health: The inequalities are widening

Life expectancy in Switzerland has been growing steadily for decades. But have these additional years been spent in good health or, on the contrary, do they only prolong the ills of an aging population? In an attempt to answer this question, researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, collated data from the Swiss National Cohort (SNC) and the Swiss Health Surveys between 1990 and 2015, all within the framework of the "LIVES" National Centre of Competence in Research...

November 12, 2019
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12Nov

The Monetary Benefit of Delaying Retirement

As clients get older, they often start to feel obligated to retire. They love working, but they are 65 or older and all their friends are doing it. The traditional concept of retirement is called a “cliff retirement” because it is so abrupt. One day you are working full time, and the next you are recreating full time. However, there are many social and health benefits to delaying retirement and continuing to work. We all need meaning and significance...

November 12, 2019
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11Nov

Ireland. Eldercare can be a double whammy for working women

Recently my colleagues at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) presented research results on the gender pension gap in Ireland. The research, sponsored by the Pensions Council, which advises government on pension policy, showed a gap of 35 per cent between the pensions of men and women. It also showed that this gap is driven by differences in access to occupational pensions. Subsequently, other ESRI colleagues presented research on older workers in Ireland. The Health and Safety Authority...

November 11, 2019
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08Nov

Longevity Risk and Retirement Income Planning

By Patrick J. Collins, Huy D. Lam, Josh Stampfli The past 50 years have seen an abundance of research on retirement planning and longevity risk. Reviewed here is the academic side of the research and its varied viewpoints and nuances. The evolution of retirement risk models, retirement portfolio problems and solutions, and annuities are some of the many topics covered. Get the book here

November 8, 2019
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07Nov

Income of 100 richest Norwegians almost double in last 10 years: report

While the income of 100 richest people in Norway almost doubled in last ten years, most other people have seen much smaller growth of their earnings, newspaper Aftenposten reported Wednesday. The tax and income list for 2018 published on Tuesday showed that more Norwegians have a taxable income of more than 1 million kroner (109,529 U.S. dollars) per year. These figures do not include deductions before tax. Last year, a total of 152,537 people earned over 1 million, 13,246...

November 7, 2019
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05Nov

Australia. Call to cut tax breaks for rich retirees

The government should look to trim generous tax concessions for wealthy superannuation savers, worth more than $36bn a year, rather than aim to include the family home in the pension assets test, according to the Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association. CPSA policy manager Paul Versteege said the family home should not be included in the asset test because “the vast majority of people live in a modest house”. The Australian on Monday revealed more than 250,000 retirees living in...

November 5, 2019
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05Nov

In Japan’s ageing society, elderly are determined to resist the push towards cashless payments

Tokyo wants to double the ratio of cashless settlements to 40 per cent by 2025 and to 80 per cent eventually to spur labour productivity However, Japanese households hold more than half of their assets in cash and deposits and that proportion rises with the elderly Cash is king in Japan, and more so for the country’s rapidly ageing population who are still deeply reluctant to give it up. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s push to make more Japanese –...

November 5, 2019
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