September 2020

08Sep

Managers Of $40 Trillion Make Plans To Decarbonize The World

The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) is a European group of global pension funds and investment managers, totaling over 1,200 members in 16 countries, who control more than $40 trillion in assets (€33 trillion). They have drawn up a plan to cut carbon in their portfolios to net-zero and hope other investors will join them. Read also One of Sweden’s Biggest Investors Starts ESG Pressure Campaign The group’s mission is to mobilize capital for a global low-carbon transition...

September 8, 2020
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...

August 2020

27Aug

South Africa. Govt won’t force pensions to be invested in infrastructure projects, says deputy fin minister

- Government does not intend to force pensions to be invested in certain assets, says Deputy Finance Minister David Masondo. - Amendments to regulation 28 of the Pension Funds Act is purely to broaden the scope of investments trustees of funds can consider, he said. - Masondo says trustees have a fiduciary duty to deliver better returns to members of funds. Government has no intention of forcing pension funds to invest in specified projects or assets which...

August 27, 2020
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
26Aug

US. A$1.6 Trillion Pension Fund Gap – Is Infrastructure Investment The Answer?

The U.S. is a superpower in the pension fund world, controlling more than 50% of global assets, and yet a recent Financial Times article identified a $1.6 trillion dollar funding gap as a grave threat to the U.S. economy. Read also US. The Future for ESG Investing in Retirement Plans For the last 15 years, as Canadian and Australian pension funds have returned on average nearly 5% per year, and often much more, their U.S. counterparts have averaged returns of...

August 26, 2020
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
06Aug

What Are The 5 Biggest Retirement Planning Mistakes?

Well, the biggest blunder is not saving enough money. No one wants to outlive their nest egg. The rest of the list is more subtle. According to Certified Financial Planner Darren Zaragola, common mistakes include: Mistake #1: Believing it is Too Late to Start Planning and Saving It is never too late to develop good habits and start saving for retirement. You do not have to “go without” to save. Every little bit helps, especially if you can take...

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

June 2020

26Jun

US. DOL Proposal Will Chill ESG Corporate Pension Investing, Advocates Say

Advocates of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing have decried the US Department of Labor (DOL)’s newest proposal as poison for sustainable investments in pension plans. Read also 2 Danish pension funds chip into latest European green bond On Tuesday, the DOL proposed a rule that said company defined benefit (DB) retirement plans have a fiduciary duty to beneficiaries, not to social causes advanced through ESG investing that could reduce returns or increase risk. Read also The Mixed...

June 26, 2020
News, Slider, , , , , ,
Read more...
05Jun

US. Making Sense Of The Supreme Court Ruling On Private-Sector Pensions

A Supreme Court decision this week on employer pensions? Yes, indeed. The ruling itself Earlier this week, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Thole v. U.S. Bank, a case in which two retirees in the U.S. Bank pension plan contended, as part of a class action, that U.S. Bank had violated its fiduciary duty in mismanaging its pension plan from 2007 to 2010, causing its assets to crash. (See Reason and 401K Specialist for summaries.) The plaintiffs...

June 5, 2020
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
05Jun

South Africa. Investors could be hit by uneven stock markets

Investors could be hit by uneven global stock markets. The warning comes as stock markets around the world extend their remarkable rallies despite a continuing global public health emergency, economic downturns and financial upheaval, political uncertainty and widespread social unrest. Wall Street is expected to open higher again on Tuesday – with the benchmark S&P500 less than 10 per cent from its all-time high. In the Asia-Pacific region and across Europe, all major indices made gains. Global...

June 5, 2020
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
04Jun

Canada. Alberta public sector pension plan fund falls $3.4B in quarter, pointing to AIMCo losses

An Alberta public sector pension plan says its fund dropped by $3.4 billion — or 6.5 per cent — in the first quarter of the year, calling it an "extremely difficult" period for investors due to COVID-19's impact on financial markets. But the Local Authorities Pension Plan (LAPP), which has 275,000 members, is also pointing to losses at the Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), its mandatory investment manager under provincial legislation. LAPP says total asset losses...

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

December 2019

27Dec

The Pan-European Pension Product Regulation: A Huge Opportunity for the Luxembourg Fund Industry

By Sebastiaan Niels Hooghiemstra Currently, there is a dynamic and ongoing improvement in life expectancies that is not accounted for in pension systems designed to provide financial security in retirement. All over Europe, there are currently employment-based (2nd pillar) pension funds and first pillar pay-as-you-go (PAYG) state pensions systems that are facing huge funding deficits as a result of that. Recently both the EU parliament and the EU Council took their stance on the introduction of an European legal...

December 27, 2019
Articles, Pension design, Pension Management, , ,
Read more...
23Dec

Japan, European Development Bank Launch Social Bond Initiative

Japan’s $1.48 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) and the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) have launched a partnership to promote and develop sustainable capital markets. Their focus will be on social bonds, and the incorporation of ESG assessments in fixed-income investments. “GPIF requires all asset managers to integrate ESG into their investment analysis and decision-making,” Hiro Mizuno, CIO of GPIF, said in a statement. “We regard the purchase of green, social and sustainability bonds as one of...

December 23, 2019
News, Slider, , , , , ,
Read more...