October 2023

UK. Govt urged to using ‘more timely’ data for state pension triple lock

The government should consider using more timely inflation and earnings growth data as part of long-term plans for the state pension triple lock, Aegon has said. The September inflation figure that could be used for the state pension increase in April will be announced next week (18 October), although it is expected to be below the 8.5 per cent earnings growth figure for May-July, which was published in August. While Aegon acknowledged that state pension rises need to be confirmed early...

U.S. Public Pension Funds Show Moderate Improvement in Q3

Today, Equable Institute released a mid-year update to its State of Pensions 2023 report. The analysis finds the aggregate funded ratio for U.S. state and local retirement systems are on track to improve from 75.0% in 2022 to 78.8% in 2023, based on data available through September 30th, 2023. Equable Institute estimates that unfunded liabilities will total $1.39 trillion for the 2023 fiscal year, compared to $1.59 trillion at the end of 2022. As more data becomes available about fiscal year 2023,...

Pension deal agreed for UK academics but divisions over pay remain unsolved

University staff will have their pension benefits restored by next April under an agreement reached between Universities UK (UUK) and the University and College Union (UCU), which represents over 120,000 researchers and teaching staff. UCU members have taken 69 days of strike action since 2018 to defend their pension benefits. But the union has vowed to keep the pressure on as it seeks concessions on pay and job security. UCU has balloted its members and will know by the...

September 2023

Kenya. 11,000 Retired Teachers Yet to Be Awarded Their Pension 27 Years Later

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung'u on Wednesday assured teachers and lawmakers that the government is entering homestretch when it comes to clearing dues owed to some 11,000 retired teachers who are yet to be paid their pension 27 years later. While appearing before MPs, the Treasury Cabinet Secretary told lawmakers that although the government released Ksh16 billion in May to settle unpaid teachers' pensions dating back to 1997, the funds were insufficient to pay all the claims. According to Prof. Ndung'u,...

New Report Finds Public Pensions Play a Critical Role in Delivering Retirement Security for Older Americans While Reducing Wealth Inequality by Race and Gender

A new report finds that defined benefit pensions play a critical role in delivering adequate retirement income for older Americans while providing a key buffer against economic hardship for women, Blacks, Latinos, and those without a four-year college degree. The report also finds that the wealth value of lifetime pension income, particularly from public pensions, is distributed more equitably by race and gender than other private financial assets, thereby narrowing the wealth gap among older families. For example, public...

U.S. Public Pension Plans Sustain Support for ESG Resolutions

Political rhetoric about the aims and efficacy of environmental, social, and governance-focused investing has turned heated in the past year. Public pension funds—irretrievably tied to politics by nature of their public funding—continued demonstrating strong support for ESG shareholder resolutions in the 2022 proxy season, according to a Morningstar review of some of the largest U.S. pension funds. The full study can be found here. These resolutions varied from calls for companies like Costco COST and Berkshire Hathaway BRK.A to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to proposals for...

August 2023

Public Employee Pensions and Municipal Insolvency

By Sean Myers  This paper studies how municipal governments jointly manage spending, credit market borrowing, and public employee pensions. I model governments as levered investors who must meet non-defaultable pension obligations and may value government spending more than citizens. I quantify the model using California city-level data, including a new record of fiscal emergencies, tax increases required to maintain essential services. After the financial crisis depleted pension funds, cities engaged in excessive risk-taking: the fiscal emergency option encouraged gambling for...

July 2023

Public pensions reporting act

By Minister of Justice A valuation report filed pursuant to this section shall be prepared in a manner consistent with the guides and Recommendations for the preparation of an actuarial report in connection with a pension plan, published by the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, and shall include such additional information as the Minister may from time to time require. Read book “here”

US Public Pensions Invest Record $1.6 Trillion in Alternative Assets

US public pensions have boosted their exposure to private equity to $622 billion, the highest in at least two decades, as part of a push for higher investment returns, according to a new report by the Equable Institute. Private equity makes up 13% of the state and local retirement plans’ investments as of 2022, compared to 11% the prior year, according to the nonprofit research group, which cited the latest data available. Overall, alternative assets — like private equity, hedge...

U.S. public pension funds unlikely to hit investment targets this year – report

State and municipal pension funds will likely miss their investment targets this year and will probably not see meaningful improvements in their unfunded liabilities or funding ratios, according to Equable Institute's "State of Pensions 2023" report released on Tuesday. Unfunded liabilities climbed to $1.57 trillion in 2022, bringing the national aggregate funding ratio to 75.4% due to negative investment returns, Equable said in a release issued in conjunction with the report. Equable now projects that the aggregate funding ratio for U.S....