February 2024
02Feb

Will AI revolutionize the retirement industry?

A recent survey from Professional Pensions showed 17% of pension experts think Artificial Intelligence (AI) will revolutionize the industry a great deal, while 60% agreed it will to some extent. Only 7% argued AI will not change the way things in the industry are done. With that backdrop, the EBRI-Milken Institute 2024 Retirement Symposium’s panel, Innovations and FinTech: Developments that Can Enhance Financial Security, Retirement Planning and Spending Down Assets, discussed the nature of AI within the retirement planning process. Yon...

February 2, 2024
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01Feb

Milliman analysis: Competitive pension risk transfer costs decrease from 101.8% to 100.5% in December

Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today announced the latest results of its Milliman Pension Buyout Index (MPBI). As the pension risk transfer (PRT) market continues to grow, it has become increasingly important to monitor the annuity market for plan sponsors that are considering transferring retiree pension obligations to an insurer. “Retiree buyout costs open 2024 at their lowest level in almost six months--despite another sizable drop in accounting discount rates” During December, the estimated cost to transfer...

February 1, 2024
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01Feb

Analysis: 2024 to be the biggest year for UK pension de-risking

UK pensions consultants expect 2024 to be another record-breaking year for the pensions risk transfer market with transactions surpassing 2023 levels. The final figures for 2023 are yet to be published. However, it is widely expected that there were circa £50bn in deals, which would brand 2023 as a record year for pension risk transfers, compared with the previous high of £43.8bn in 2019. UK pensions consultants expect this trend to continue. WTW expects pension risk transfer volumes to reach £80bn, with...

February 1, 2024
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January 2024
31Jan

Pension insurers charter commits to sustainable pension risk transfers

Accounting for Sustainability (A4S), the Church of England Pensions Board and Railpen have developed a charter for pension insurers that sets out guiding principles for the bulk annuity process focusing on transparency, decision making, reporting and engagement, and collaboration. The pension funds that have joined the charter as founding signatories include Cancer Research Pension Scheme, Church of England Pensions Board, HSBC Bank Pensions Scheme, Railpen, and Railways Pension Scheme. For insurers, founding signatories include Aviva, Just Group, Legal & General, Pensions...

January 31, 2024
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30Jan

South Korea. NPS Achieved Impressive 9.88% Annual Return Last Year, Approaching 1 Quadrillion Won Mark

As of November last year, the National Pension Fund’s (NPS) rate of return approached double digits. Despite concerns about a global economic downturn, the strength of the stock market resulted in the evaluation of the fund’s assets surging to nearly 1 quadrillion won. The NPS Investment Management disclosed on Jan. 29 that the cumulative rate of return for the fund until November last year stood at 9.88 percent. This figure represents a notable increase from the cumulative return of 6.75...

January 30, 2024
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30Jan

Where Pension Incentive Pay Makes Sense — and Doesn’t

By Girard Miller To continue a theme I introduced in my last column, the compensation structures for public pension professionals will need a tune-up if we expect them to deliver superior investment returns. The first steps toward performance improvement don’t require a lot of money — just a willingness to bump up the salaries of those with proven investment IQs as demonstrated through relevant credentialing programs. Beyond that, however, it gets much trickier for the plans seeking to deliver optimal performance in...

January 30, 2024
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25Jan

Money managers divided over Chinese equities

Global money managers are split as to whether buy signals are flashing for China stocks right now, even as they agree the equity market does look cheap. The gap between Chinese company market capitalizations and the U.S. stock market was $42.5 trillion as of market close Jan. 23, based on Pensions & Investments' calculations using Bloomberg data. Bloomberg reported Jan. 23 that Chinese stocks have lost more than $6.3 trillion in value from a February 2021 peak, vs. a $5.3 trillion...

January 25, 2024
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24Jan

UK pension funds turn to renewable energy investment

UK pension funds and insurers are keen to increase allocations to renewable energy in the coming years, according to new research. A survey by AlphaReal, a specialist real assets manager, found that a majority of pension funds and insurers planned to increase their allocation to renewable energy in the next year. The survey, which included institutions with a combined £360bn in assets under management, found that 90% of respondents planned to increase their allocation to renewables, with the remaining 10% open...

January 24, 2024
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23Jan

US. ‘Too few’ public pension funds address climate in proxy voting — report

"Too few" public pension funds are addressing climate-related financial risk when it comes to proxy voting, according to a report released Jan. 23 by nonprofit organizations Sierra Club, Stand.earth and Stop the Money Pipeline. The report, "The Hidden Risk in State Pensions: Analyzing State Pensions' Responses to the Climate Crisis in Proxy Voting," looked at 24 public pension funds with a collective $2 trillion in assets, including the $241.7 billion New York City Retirement Systems and state pension funds in California,...

January 23, 2024
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22Jan

Japan pension giant GPIF opens door to more asset managers

Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund plans to expand its choice of asset managers, bringing in newer companies as part of a push into active management. "We look forward to discovering superior asset management companies by opening our door wider," GPIF President Masataka Miyazono told reporters Friday. The move comes as GPIF, one of the world's biggest institutional investors, steps up its pursuit of market-beating returns. The fund had about 220 trillion yen ($1.48 trillion) in assets under management at the end of...

January 22, 2024
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