November 2023

Alberta pension plan: Analysis of costs, benefits, risks and considerations

By LifeWorks Alberta Treasury Board and Finance (ATBF) has engaged LifeWorks to prepare a detailed analysis of the costs, benefits and structure of a potential Alberta Pension Plan (APP). This analysis includes actuarial, economic, legal, and technical information regarding the establishment and ongoing operation of an APP. This analysis will give ATBF a clearer picture on what a future provincial pension plan may look like and help answer key questions that Albertans are asking about the costs and benefits of such a move. This report does...

The Impact of Population Aging on Financial Services and Economic Development

By Hongyu Fang With the increasing aging population, it has had a profound impact on the financial services industry and economy. This study aims to explore the effect of population aging on the financial service industry and economy and propose corresponding countermeasures and suggestions. The aging population has brought challenges to the financial services industry. The increase in the elderly population has led to a rise in demand for financial products and services. Financial institutions innovate and develop financial products...

World’s Largest Pension Fund Posts $4.5 Billion Quarterly Loss

Japan’s state pension fund, the world’s largest, posted a loss of ¥683.2 billion ($4.5 billion) on total assets during the three months through September as its holdings of domestic debt slumped by a record. The Government Pension Investment Fund lost 0.3% during the quarter, the fund said in Tokyo Thursday. Total assets rose slightly to ¥219.32 trillion due to a transfer of funds from the government’s account that manages its pension, according to a spokesperson. Domestic bonds lost 2.7%, the...

UK household wealth has tanked and it’s a sign of what could happen in the US

Household wealth in the UK has fallen sharply over the last two years in part thanks to high interest rates, and the factors that led to the drop suggest a similar scenario could be heading for the US. New research from the think tank Resolution Foundation found that median household wealth in the UK fell 21% from the start of 2022 through the third quarter of 2023, representing a loss of £2.2 trillion (US$2.7 trillion). The fall is due, in large...

Canada Pension Plan Increases Green, Transition Investments by 20% to C$79B

The C$575 billion ($416.4 billion) Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s investments in green and transition assets rose 20% to C$79 billion, as of March 31, from C$66 billion at the same time in 2022, according to its “2023 Report on Sustainable Investing.” The pension giant, which aims to invest at least $130 billion in green and transition assets by 2030, also announced it has reached carbon neutrality for internal operations for scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions sources for fiscal...

October 2023

US department of labor announces proposed rule to protect retirement savers’ interests by updating definition of investment advice fiduciary

The U.S. Department of Labor today announced that its Employee Benefits Security Administration has proposed a retirement security rule updating the definition of an investment advice fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Aligned with the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to protect retirement investors, the proposal would require trusted investment advisers to adhere to high standards of care and loyalty when they make investment recommendations and avoid recommendations that favor their financial and other interests at the expense of retirement savers. The updated...

Nest partners with Blackrock to manage investment risk

Nest has selected Blackrock’s Aladdin to manage the risk of its entire investment strategy on a single platform. The UK’s largest workplace pension scheme by members, Nest highlighted the management of key investment risks as a “crucial part” of its long-term plan to continue evolving its investment strategies across both public and private markets. The whole portfolio view and Aladdin climate components of the Aladdin platform aim to allow Nest to monitor more than 3,000 risk factors across fixed income, equity,...

Determinants of Portfolio ESG Performance: An Attribution Framework

By James J. Li We develop a parsimonious attribution framework for evaluating the ESG performance of a portfolio. Our attribution model decomposes portfolio ESG performance into three principal components: a value effect, a weighting effect, and an interaction effect. We illustrate our approach using the equity portfolios of U.S. public pension funds over time. We find that U.S. public pensions’ positive ESG performance over the past decade is mainly due to their underlying holdings boosting their ESG scores over this...

S.Korea pension fund to keep increasing overseas investments through 2028

South Korea's National Pension Service (NPS) will increase its overseas investments to 60% of total assets by 2028, the welfare ministry said on Friday. The NPS will also prepare a portfolio-setting mechanism to expand alternative investments more easily, employ more personnel for such investments, and diversify its portfolio with mid-risk, mid-return investments. With the measures, the NPS aims to improve its investment returns by one more percentage point to help sustain the fund, which is expected to be depleted by 2055...

US. Pension risk transfer pipeline remains robust, even if falling short of 2022 record

The U.S. pension risk transfer market remains robust in 2023, although it may not break the record for dollar volume set in 2022, experts say. This is despite a new record for dollar volume in the first half of 2023, totaling $22.5 billion in premiums paid for pension buyout transactions, according to research firm LIMRA. In 2022, the total volume was $48.3 billion, driven primarily by corporate pension funds' improving funding ratios, which have enabled many to pull the trigger on...