September 2024

US. Annuities gain traction with middle-market consumers

Middle-income Americans will have a more difficult time managing their longevity risk in retirement now that fewer of them have defined benefit plans. Making matters more complicated is that many of these middle-market investors may have saved thousands of dollars throughout their careers in their employer-sponsored defined contribution plans but may not know how they can be certain their money lasts throughout the retirement. LIMRA’s Retirement Investor Study, published earlier this year, examined middle-income investors’ views of their retirement risks...

August 2024

UK. Britain should raise pension contributions to plug ‘gender gap’, consultant Mercer says

 The minimum amount that workers and employers in Britain put into pension pots should be raised to help plug a retirement cash gap between men and women, and boost investment in productive assets, pensions consultant Mercer said on Wednesday. Britain's new Labour government has announced a review of the pensions industry to give people more value and create bigger cash piles to invest in infrastructure and green technology to raise returns and economic growth. The government should consider increasing - in stages - the minimum...

The Average Retirement Age in 2024: US vs. France

Do Americans really work themselves to death, as the media so often portrays? Likewise, do Europeans really avoid work like the plague? Of course not — but that doesn’t mean the retirement looks identical in countries like the US and France. While the average retirement age differs, so too do the benefit systems in each country. Consider the following facts as you compare retirement in the US to France, before booking a one-way ticket to the Continent. Also check out these reasons for using a financial advisor...

India approves assured pension scheme for federal government employees

The Indian government approved on Saturday a pension scheme which will guarantee federal government employees 50% of their base salary as a pension, moving away from a current scheme where the payout is linked to market returns. The Modi government has been forced to reassess the current pension system, adopted after a significant fiscal reform in 2004, as some states switched back to the older, fiscally straining system of fully funding a guaranteed pension. The Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) for India's...

Pension funds should protect our future, not destroy it

We live in a world where people’s movements for a healthy environment, with clean air to breathe and fresh water to drink, are vital and unstoppable. Sadly, fossil fuel companies are using all their might to continue extracting and polluting – harming communities, nature and the climate, all for the short-term financial gains of a few. But, as crises collide, calls for governments to hold corporations to account are growing, together with expectations that businesses must avoid harming people and...

July 2024

US. The ‘Three-Legged Stool’ of Retirement Is Missing a Leg

Once, the tale goes, American workers relied upon a three-legged stool for their retirement income: 1) Social Security, 2) pensions, and 3) personal savings. That metaphor was always rickety, as even at their peak pensions covered less than half of private-sector workers. Today, that figure is 15%. (Government employees are another matter, although those with college educations pay for the pension privilege by receiving lower ongoing wages.) To switch analogies, the middle ground is vacant. Social Security provides subsistence for retirees, while personal savings contribute...

UK. Lifetime annuity rates rise to over 7% in June

Lifetime annuity rates have continued to improve in 2024, rising to 7.08 per cent in June for a healthy 65 year old, according to the Standard Life Annuity Rate Tracker. This is around a 4 per cent increase from the average rate of 6.81 per cent in January and a 2.64 per cent improvement from 6.9 per cent in March. This would add an extra £3,659 to the average total lifetime income for a 65 year old man and £4,059 to...

US. The No. 1 enemy of your 401(k) plan may be you

Here's the truth about the portfolio strategy you might be following When the stock market did a face-plant earlier this week, I went and checked some numbers. And I thought: Yep. Like clockwork. Yep: Individual investors have been feeling bullish. Yep: Joe and Jane Q. Public have been pouring money into the stock market - after this year's big run-up. The Investment Company Institute reports a surge of buying of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that invest in U.S. stocks in the...

US. A Philly Small Business Network May Have an Answer to America’s Retirement Crisis

Americans are woefully underprepared for retirement. So it's no surprise that employer-sponsored retirement programs are a high priority for all workers. Fifty-five-year olds in the U.S. currently have median retirement savings of less than $50,000, and two-thirds fear they will outlive their savings, a Prudential report recently revealed. However, only around one-third of small employers offer retirement savings plans, according to Fidelity Investment's 2023 Small Business Retirement Index, which cited time and cost as the biggest barriers small-business owners face in offering retirement benefits. First, employers must pay...

Japan to abolish gender-specific survivor’s pension benefits, introduce fixed-term payments

The Japanese welfare ministry is set to revise the survivor's welfare pension for men and women in their 20s to 50s without children, changing it to a five-year fixed-term benefit from the current gender-specific rule where the widow receives the benefit indefinitely if she is 30 or older, while the widower cannot receive payments unless he is 55 or older. The planned adjustment will be made over several decades to ensure that current recipients won't face a disadvantage. The ministry...