August 2024
27Aug

US. How Are Employees Responding to State-Run Retirement Plans?

Practice Management State-run auto-IRA plans affect private-sector employers but are most of all intended to benefit their employees. How are those employees responding to them? Overall Positive Effects There is research indicating that these plans, in which employers are required register if they do not already offer retirement coverage to their employees, have a variety of positive effects. A number of researchers report that state auto-IRA programs increase coverage by serving as a catalyst to private-sector employers to establish plans of their own. In the...

August 27, 2024
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July 2024
29Jul

US. The No. 1 enemy of your 401(k) plan may be you

Here's the truth about the portfolio strategy you might be following When the stock market did a face-plant earlier this week, I went and checked some numbers. And I thought: Yep. Like clockwork. Yep: Individual investors have been feeling bullish. Yep: Joe and Jane Q. Public have been pouring money into the stock market - after this year's big run-up. The Investment Company Institute reports a surge of buying of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that invest in U.S. stocks in the...

July 29, 2024
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23Jul

How Gen X Can Catch Up on Retirement Savings

Generation X—the cohort of people born between 1965 and 1980—is now squarely in middle age. This phase often brings worries about aging, mortality, and a general decline in overall life satisfaction. Retirement preparedness is another major worry. Based on BlackRock’s 2024 Read on Retirement report, only 60% of survey respondents in this generation believe they’re on track to retire with the lifestyle they want, compared with 77% for Generation Z, 72% for millennials, and 68% for baby boomers. Another survey from Transamerica puts some additional context...

July 23, 2024
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22Jul

South Africa. Key two-pot bill signed into law

President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed into law the Pension Funds Amendment Bill that is key for the implementation of the two-pot retirement system, which takes effect on September 1. The signature into law of the bill gives legal certainty to the retirement industry, which has been implementing the necessary changes. The new system will provide members of retirement funds with the ability to access part of their retirement savings without having to resign or cash out their pension funds. The new...

July 22, 2024
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18Jul

PensionBee to enter US market

PensionBee Group plc, a prominent online pension provider, has announced the launch of its operations in the United States, the world’s largest Defined Contribution pension market. The move will see them enter the market which accounts for approximately 80% of the global total and boasts $22.5tn in assets. The company’s wholly-owned US subsidiary, PensionBee Inc., is now registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission as an investment adviser. In May this year, PensionBee entered into a strategic agreement with State Street...

July 18, 2024
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05Jul

2023 Defined Contribution Pension and Savings Report

By Gemma Burrows The 2023 survey contains data on 122 of the FTSE 350 companies and 140 other leading UK employers, which makes this one of the largest UK DC Pension and Savings Surveys in the industry. As always, we would like to thank those who took part in this survey and helped us to conduct this research and bring these valuable insights. Get the report here ___ Since our last survey, we have seen turmoil in investment markets, inflation rise into double-digit...

July 5, 2024
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June 2024
26Jun

Ghana. SSNIT drags railways MD to court for nonpayment of contributions

The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) office in Takoradi has dragged the Ghana Railways Corporation (GRC) and its Managing Director, Michael Adjei Anyetei, to court for nonpayment of social security contributions of the entity’s workers to the tune of GH¢4.13 million. The Circuit Court presided over by Araba Nunoo, issued the warrant for the arrest of the managing director after the SSNIT Prosecutor, Ann-Marie Annan, applied for a bench warrant to that effect. The prosecutor told the court that...

June 26, 2024
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19Jun

UK. ‘Serious disparity’ around retirement savings of people identifying as LGBTQ+

One in four (25%) people who identify as LGBTQ+ are not saving for their retirement, a survey has found. The research was released by Scottish Widows to coincide with Pride Month in June. It also found that just under a fifth (18%) of people who do not identify as LGBTQ+ report they are saving nothing towards their retirement. People who are LGBTQ+ were also less likely in the survey to say that they have taken financial advice. One in nine (11%) people surveyed who identify as...

June 19, 2024
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18Jun

UK. DC contributions exceed DB pensions for the first time

A report published today by Barnett Waddingham (BW), the leading professional services consultancy shows that for the first time, contributions paid by the FTSE 350 defined benefit (DB) scheme sponsors into defined contribution (DC) schemes exceeded those paid into DB schemes. BW conducted an analysis of the FTSE 350 companies with DB pension schemes over the last twelve months to 31 May 2024. The data reveals that contributions totalling £8.1 billion were paid into DB schemes (consisting of £4.7bn of...

June 18, 2024
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13Jun

UK. Auto-enrolment ambitions must go above and beyond just pensions

If I were to point to the most sensible decision made in pensions policy in the last 20 years, the introduction of auto-enrolment (AE) in 2012 would no doubt top the list. In one swoop, the mandatory law made saving for retirement the norm and improved the chances of maintaining a decent standard of living in later life for millions of employees. Of course, AE was never supposed to be the last word. It was meant to be the beginning of...

June 13, 2024
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