October 2023
09Oct

Kenya. Pension fund assets up Sh127bn on NSSF new rates

Pension fund assets rose by Sh127 billion in the first half of this year, boosted in part by the introduction of higher mandatory contributions to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and exchange gains on offshore investments. The 8.1 percent growth to Sh1.704 trillion was also boosted by new investments in Real Estate Investment Trusts (Reits), including the Sh6.92 billion Laptrust Imara Investment Reit (I-Reit) which was listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) in March. Read: Pension funds fail to...

October 9, 2023
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06Oct

The Vanguard Retirement Outlook: A national perspective on retirement readiness

By Fu Tan, Fiona Greig, Andrew S. Clarke, Kevin Khang, Kate McKinnon & Victoria Zhang The global retirement landscape is changing. As populations age, government retirement benefits are under pressure. At the same time, the shift from defined benefit to defined contribution workplace retirement plans means that workers bear more responsibility for managing capital markets risk and turning accumulated savings into retirement income. And many workers have no access to a workplace plan. In the United States, the figure is about...

October 6, 2023
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04Oct

Ghana. Government settles all outstanding pensions contributions ending August 2023

The Chief Executive of the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), Hayford Attah Krufi, has revealed that government has cleared all outstanding Tier 1 and Tier 2 pension contributions ending August 2023. According to hin, the payment was done in September 2023, after government finalised the Domestic Debt Exchange Porogrammme. “About ¢2.3 billion payments has been released to clear all these arrears”, Mr. Krufi stressed. Background The 2022 Financial Stability Review report released by the Bank of Ghana showed that government had defaulted on...

October 4, 2023
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02Oct

UK. Concerns over self-employed pension adequacy persist

Self-employed workers could boost their retirement resilience by paying into their partner's pension, Hargreaves Lansdown has said, after its analysis raised concerns over the current level of pension saving amongst the self-employed. According to the latest data from the Hargreaves Lansdown Savings and Resilience Barometer, self-employed led households scored 53/100 for their financial resilience compared to 67/100 among employee-led households. However, the firm clarified that the picture is "a bit more nuanced than this", as households where the self-employed worker is...

October 2, 2023
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September 2023
29Sep

US. More Evidence Suggests State-Sponsored Retirement Plans Close the Coverage Gap

Analysis of the first state-sponsored retirement plan for uncovered workers—OregonSaves—supports earlier findings that auto-IRAs do, in fact, close the coverage gap. More specifically, a new paper examined Oregon’s program, started in 2017, which requires employers who did not offer any workplace retirement savings plans to automatically enroll employees into a Roth IRA through payroll deduction. The study assessed the impact of mandated automatic enrollment rather than voluntary automatic enrollment, enabling the examination of changes in employer behaviors for those obliged to...

September 29, 2023
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29Sep

US. Workers’ expectations about choosing when to retire unrealistic – study

Pre-retirees may have unrealistic expectations about how long they will stay in the workforce, according to a new research report released Sept. 28 by nonprofit Transamerica Center for Retirement Research in collaboration with Transamerica Institute. Two-thirds of workers age 50 or older (66%) expect to retire after age 65 or do not plan to retire at all, an expectation inconsistent with reality as the majority of retirees (58%) retired before 65, the study found. More than half of retirees, 56%, retired...

September 29, 2023
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29Sep

Best Practices for Defined Contribution Plans

By Nicole M. Boyson This paper provides operational and investment recommendations for ERISA 403(b) plans. Based on a review of academic literature and an empirical analysis, I recommend that plan investment menus include mostly passive index funds covering key investment categories, a full suite of index-based target date funds as the auto-enroll qualified default investment alternative, and a self-directed brokerage option. I also recommend that plan sponsors adhere to and regularly review the plan’s Investment Policy Statement, that the Retirement...

September 29, 2023
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27Sep

Ghana. Financial sector assets see 95% growth

The nation’s financial sector assets’ value in nominal terms has almost doubled – recording a growth of 94.96 percent between the end of 2017 and 2022; a period marked by sector clean-ups, the COVID-19 pandemic, Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) as well as recapitalisation of institutions in the sector. This was contained in the Ghana Financial Stability Review dubbed ‘Managing financial stability risks in the midst of a difficult macroeconomic environment and Domestic Debt Exchange Programme’, released by the sector’s...

September 27, 2023
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26Sep

India. Around 90% regret not saving early for retirement, shows study

It is important to start saving early for retirement. In a recently-concluded study, it was revealed that a vast majority of people (90%) wish they had initiated retirement savings earlier, underscoring the significance of proactive financial planning. The study also revealed that Western India shows the least sense of security towards a peaceful retirement life compared to other zones. The India Retirement Index Study (IRIS), carried out by Max Life Insurance in partnership with Kantar, also revealed deep insights into the...

September 26, 2023
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22Sep

The Future of Global Retirement

By Andrew Evans & Will Wynne Smart is a world-leading retirement technology provider. Our mission is to transform retirement, savings and financial wellbeing, across all generations, around the world. Launched in 2015, our technology platform – Keystone – serves the needs of retirement savers globally, and we are now active on four continents. Keystone is specifically designed to help governments and financial services organisations to serve their citizens' and customers' retirement saving and spending needs. Smart’s team of engineers, researchers and user...

September 22, 2023
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