August 2020

03Aug

Ranked: The Best and Worst Pension Plans, by Country

The global population is aging—by 2050, one in six people will be over the age of 65. As our aging population nears retirement and gets closer to cashing in their pensions, countries need to ensure their pension systems can withstand the extra strain. This graphic uses data from the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index (MMGPI) to showcase which countries are best equipped to support their older citizens, and which ones aren’t. The Breakdown Each country’s pension system has been shaped...

August 3, 2020
Adequacy, Articles, Investment, System Sustainability, ,
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July 2020

10Jul

Age with Care: Long-term Care in Latin America and the Caribbean

By Gianluca Cafagna, Natalia Aranco, Pablo Ibarrarán, María Laura Oliveri, Nadin Medellin, Marco Stampini In Latin America and the Caribbean, more than 8 million older people are unable to independently complete at least one basic activity of daily living, such as eating, bathing or showering, or getting in and out of bed. This situation, called care dependence, affects 12% of people over age 60 and nearly 27% of people over age 80 in the region. The demand for long-term...

July 10, 2020
Aging, Books, , ,
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10Jul

Society at a Glance

By OECD The OECD biennial report providing internationally comparable data on demography and family characteristics, employment and wealth, mobility and housing, health status, social expenditure, subjective well-being, social cohesion, and other social measures. Included are such interesting variables as suicides, child care costs, prisoners, gender wage gaps, poverty and mothers in employment. Get the book here

July 10, 2020
Aging, Books, Labor Market, ,
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June 2020

29Jun

Changes To Social Security Insurance In China

China has updated their social security insurance policies with some noteworthy changes. Jurisdiction China What's new? 1. Faster social security card application process The State Council and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security will facilitate a faster application process for social security cards through the nationwide integrated online government service platform. Read also WeBank, Huawei and KPMG Share Insights on Fighting COVID – 19 with FinTech 2. Merging of Maternity Insurance with Basic Medical Insurance The State Council...

June 29, 2020
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12Jun

South African Individual Retirement Savings: An Analysis of the Social Factors

By Gizelle Willows This study's primary aim is to determine whether members of a South African tertiary institution's retirement fund are en route to have sufficient retirement savings. Secondly, the results are analysed between different social factors namely: age, gender, race, education level, marital status, and cost of employment. Survey data and information received directly from the retirement fund were used as inputs in a customised model. This method was unique to this study, that is, it was able...

June 12, 2020
Articles, Savings, , ,
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08Jun

A “New Deal” for Informal Workers in Asia

By Era Dabla-Norris, Changyong Rhee Full or partial lockdowns to curb the spread of COVID-19 are having crippling effects on businesses and workers across Asia, as elsewhere. Among the most vulnerable of the workers are the ones working in part-time and temporary jobs without social insurance, and in sectors of the economy that are neither taxed, nor regulated by any form of government. Known as informal workers, they are particularly vulnerable to dramatic collapses of income and loss...

June 8, 2020
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08Jun

Building better retirement systems in the wake of the global pandemic

By Olivia S. Mitchell In the wake of the global pandemic known as COVID-19, retirees, along with those hoping to retire someday, have been shocked into a new awareness of the need for better risk management tools to handle longevity and aging. This paper offers an assessment of the status quo prior to the spread of the coronavirus, evaluates how retirement systems are faring in the wake of the shock. Next we examine insurance and financial market products that...

June 8, 2020
Articles, Pension design, System Sustainability, , , , , ,
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08Jun

US. Why you may wind up relying more on social security in retirement than you expect to

The median amount that U.S. workers have saved for retirement is just $50,000, according to a recent report from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies. Even among baby boomers -- the generation that is currently in the midst of retiring -- the median worker only has about $144,000 socked away. For many, that amount of money likely will be depleted after just a few years in retirement. Fortunately, Social Security benefits will provide retirees with a steady income stream...

June 8, 2020
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May 2020
29May

Integrating Social Insurance and Social Assistance Programs for the Future World of Labor

By Robert J. Palacios, David A. Robalino Given the prevalence of informal labor, most countries have combined contributory social insurance programs (pensions, unemployment benefits, and health insurance), with non-contributory insurance programs and several types of "safety nets." All of these programs involve different types of subsidies and taxes, sometimes implicit. Because of design problems and the lack of coordination/integration between programs, these subsidies/taxes tend to cause four problems: 1) they can reduce incentives to contribute to mandatory insurance programs...

May 29, 2020
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15May

Selfies can help Brazil create a super supplementary pension

By Arun Muralidhar, Robert C. Merton, Alexandre Vitorino Brazilian policy makers and researchers have discussed the introduction of a complementary pension system to complement the Regime Geral de Previdência Social (RGPS), specially for those that want a retirement income above the RGPS ceiling. This article first recommends that the complementary system must be SUPER (Simple, Universal, Portable, Efficient with low cost and Robust Regulatation). It then proposes the adoption of a financial innovation called SeLFIES (Standard-of-Living, Forward-starting, Income-only Securities),...

May 15, 2020
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