April 2023
05Apr

Nigeria: NLC, TUC Threatens to Resume Strike in Imo State

Organised labour under the auspices of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC ) warned that its members may be forced to resume the suspended strike in Imo state if the state government failed to resolve the lingering industrial dispute. In a letter addressed to Imo state Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma, dated March 31, 2023, the two labour bodies urged the state government to fix a date for final resolution of the dispute with workers. NLC had directed...

April 5, 2023
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March 2023
24Mar

Pension Administration in Nigeria: Lessons and Reflections

By Opeyemi Naimot Dawodu In every democratic society, from the jurisprudential perspective, there are certain ideals that must be present one of which is social justice. These ideals are aspirations and the nearer a society is to these aspirations, the better the society is. In a country like Nigeria, pension is one of the social objectives in partial fulfillment of the ideals present in Chapter 2 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended 2011) and as such how this...

March 24, 2023
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15Mar

Ghana. ‘We don’t have time to go to court, we’ll picket MoF some more’ – Pension bondholders threaten

Pensioners who bought government bonds and have not been paid their coupons have threatened to picket the Ministry of Finance some more if they are not paid in 48 hours. "We have our options, plenty of them, including the picketing, so, when it comes that we have to repeat, we'll repeat", the group's convener, Dr. Adu Anane Antwi, told Valentina Ofori-Afriyie on Class91.3FM's mid-day news programme 12 Live. Asked if the options included going to court, Dr. Anane Antwi said: "No,...

March 15, 2023
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15Mar

Why So Many Experts Consider Annuities a Win for Retirees

Do you know what type of retirement product saw sales soar 44% in 2022 — and received praise and positive publicity in the finance field as consumers saw their other retirement investments lose value? It’s not cryptocurrency! It’s not some hedge fund. Or junk bonds. It’s easily understood and won’t be seen as a fad in future years. I’ve described it as a product that “doesn’t make your retirement; it makes your retirement better.” Its technical term is single premium immediate annuity,...

March 15, 2023
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February 2023
10Feb

Kenya. Pensions Department To Fast-Track Processing Of Pensions

Retiring public servants will receive their pension within 90 days after exiting from service if a plan by the Pensions Department in the Treasury and Planning Ministry to fast-track the processing of pension materializes. Already, the department has deployed its officers at the Teachers Service Commission and Vigilance House to help process pension for retiring teachers and police officers and the same is expected to be replicated at the Headquarters of all ministries, officials have said. This, the officials said, will...

February 10, 2023
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09Feb

UK MPs and peers find HSBC complicit in Hong Kong human rights abuses

HSBC is complicit in human rights abuses against Hong Kong residents by siding with Chinese authorities and denying pension payouts to those who fled the authoritarian crackdown, an inquiry by peers and MPs has concluded. The report by the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on Hong Kong took issue with the fact that banks including HSBC – which help to manage the compulsory pension fund that all residents pay into – have bowed to local authorities and refused to recognise the...

February 9, 2023
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09Feb

Ghana debt swap deal ‘good for you’, finance minister tells retirees

Ghana's finance minister told a group of protesting retiree bondholders on Monday they were being a offered a good deal, as the government of the struggling West African nation pushes to get a domestic debt exchange over the line by Tuesday. Ghana launched a debt swap plan in December as part of attempts to address a spiralling economic crisis, but it has struggled to convince bondholders to register, in part due to a lack of clarity over its terms and...

February 9, 2023
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02Feb

U.S. A Retirement Income Distribution Plan Is as Critical as Saving

The majority of your life is spent in accumulation mode — earning a steady income and putting money aside for things like retirement, savings, your child’s education or a dream vacation home. After years of investing and saving, it is critical to shift your mindset out of accumulation mode and into distribution, or decumulation, mode when retirement nears. Making that mental shift is difficult for most, but having a comprehensive wealth plan that includes a retirement income distribution strategy...

February 2, 2023
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January 2023
06Jan

Standardized, Unitized, Accretive Longevity Insurance: Lessons from the Differing Demand for Annuities and Life Insurance

By Andrew Stumpff Morrison The historic U.S. shift from defined-benefit to defined-contribution employer-sponsored retirement plans has produced, among other things, a reduction in sharing of the risk of outliving one’s retirement savings. Commercial annuity contracts are available to insure this risk, but despite efforts to encourage their acquisition, few people own them. Close comparison with another life-cycle risk – that addressed by life insurance, which is more widely purchased by consumers – highlights as a probable reason for this low...

January 6, 2023
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06Jan

Optimal Retirement with Disability Pensions

By Hans Fehr & Adrian Fröhlich This paper develops a general equilibrium life-cycle model with endogenous retirement and disability risk, in order to quantify the impact of recent pension reforms in Germany. At certain ages households may either apply for disability pensions (DP) or old-age pensions (OAP), de-pending on eligibility rules and the generosity of the two programs. Our policy analysis focus on the increase in the normal retirement age (NRA) from age 65 to 67 (Reform 2007) and the recent...

January 6, 2023
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