November 2019

27Nov

UK Pension Provider STM Slumps 30% After Profit Warning

Financial services provider STM Group said on Wednesday it expects its 2019 underlying earnings to fall by a third on weak performance in its pensions business, sending its shares plunging 30%. The company, listed on London's junior stock market, forecast an annual underlying pretax profit of 2.5 million pounds ($3.21 million), compared with 3.7 million pounds reported last year. The slowdown in business applications within its pensions segment was partly due to some uncertainties and concerns in the general...

November 27, 2019
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22Nov

The People’s Money: Pensions, Debt, and Government Services;Urban Agenda

By Michael A Pagano American cities continue to experience profound fiscal crises. Falling revenues cannot keep pace with the increased costs of vital public services, infrastructure development and improvement, and adequately funded pensions. Chicago presents an especially vivid example of these issues, as the state of Illinois's rocky fiscal condition compounds the city's daunting budget challenges. In The People's Money, Michael A. Pagano curates a group of essays that emerged from discussions at the 2018 UIC Urban Forum. The...

November 22, 2019
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21Nov

World’s Largest Pension Fund Keeps Analysts in Dark on Portfolio

Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund’s decision to not disclose details of its quarterly allocation breakdown has some analysts saying that the world’s biggest pension fund is backtracking on transparency. Read also Impact investing is about more than saving the world In a statement on Nov. 1, GPIF President Norihiro Takahashi said the fund won’t disclose the allocation breakdown, amounts and investment income for each asset class this fiscal year, as it reviews the composition of its basic portfolio, which totals...

November 21, 2019
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21Nov

South Africa. Battle to recover R42 billion in unclaimed pension money

A campaign to reclaim billions of rands in unclaimed benefits is about to kick into high gear. The Unclaimed Benefits Committee (UBC), representing a group of claimants, and non-profit organisation Open Secrets, are planning to lobby Parliament. “We will also be calling for a boycott of finance companies involved in withholding benefits,” says Thomas Malakotse, a member of the UBC steering committee. “The fund administrators have been making secret profits for decades by charging fees on these unclaimed assets,...

November 21, 2019
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20Nov

Netherlands Spares Pensioners Cuts in 2020 as Funds Rebuild Ratios

Millions of Dutch pensioners were spared cuts to their retirement income in 2020 after the government granted pension funds a year's grace period to restore sagging coverage ratios, although it said future cuts and higher premiums are likely. The retreat by Mark Rutte's centrist government had been widely expected, given anger among pensioners and national elections due in 2021. But the decision could hurt the reputation of the Netherlands' pension system, often rated 'best in the world' and framed...

November 20, 2019
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19Nov

US. Understanding The FedEx Pension Closure

“FedEx Closes Pension Plan to New Hires”: that’s the headline at the Wall Street Journal today. Or, as the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported, “FedEx to launch a new 401k plan with a higher match, but no pension with it. ” Superficially, it looks like a repeat of the same old story of employers taking pensions away from their employees. But, in fact, there are a few wrinkles here. In the first place, FedEx had already frozen its traditional pension plan,...

November 19, 2019
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15Nov

The Role DC Plan Investment Menus Play in Participant Savings

A recent analysis by Alight Solutions found retirement plan participants invested in target-date funds (TDFs) are contributing less than those who don’t utilize TDFs. However, a Vanguard report highlighted the extreme growth among these investment funds—93% of plans associated with the advisory firm have adopted TDFs as of 2018. That same year, TDFs accounted for more than one-third of total Vanguard defined contribution (DC) plan assets and over half of total DC plan contributions. TDFs’ domination of the total...

November 15, 2019
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06Nov

Rising tensions pose Asia dilemma for US pensions

US state pension schemes certainly don’t lack for problems. Many have nowhere near enough funds to cover growing payout liabilities (see first box below). And they struggle to shift their members from defined benefit to defined contribution schemes which would sap their assets less quickly. Read also China Life Pension Assets Doubled One solution would be to improve investment performance. Unfortunately, asset returns have been falling and market volatility rising, in part because of the geopolitical uncertainty and US-China trade...

November 6, 2019
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05Nov

China Life Pension Assets Doubled

China Life Pension has doubled its assets under management in the past 12 months to more than 1 trillion yuan ($142bn) and could soon join the ranks of the world’s largest pension funds over the next two years. Until recently, many Chinese provinces have managed their own pension funds. However, the central government in the past year has opened up the management of pension assets to a handful of domestic groups including China Life. It hopes that such moves...

November 5, 2019
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04Nov

US. Coal Mine Workers Pension “Death” Deserves An Autopsy

A forensic review of the endangered mine workers pension should be undertaken immediately. Workers and retirees deserve answers and once the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation takes over the plan, it will be too late. The bankruptcy of Murray Energy, America’s largest private coal mining company has coal workers “nervous and scared” for their pensions, says CNN. The company is seeking to dramatically slash its liabilities through bankruptcy, including $8 billion of pension and retiree healthcare obligations. Murray...

November 4, 2019
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