March 2022

UK. Govt’s dashboard proposals cause widespread industry concerns

The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association has recommended three thresholds that must be met before pensions dashboards are launched to the public, but there is widespread industry concern around liability for incorrect or misinterpreted information, and significant doubts whether its launch is achievable by the government’s preferred dates. The Department for Work and Pensions launched a consultation into its draft dashboards regulations in January that set out detailed data presentation and communication requirements, and that reaffirmed the government’s commitment to...

February 2022

AI for social protection: Mind the people

The technology that allowed passengers to ride elevators without an operator was tested and ready for deployment in the 1890s. But it was only after the elevator operators’ strike of 1946—which cost New York City $100 million—that automated elevators started to get installed. It took more than 50 years to persuade people that they were as safe and as convenient as those operated by humans. The promise of radical changes from new technologies has often overshadowed the human factor...

Global Pension Assets Study – 2022

By Thinking Ahead Institute The Global Pension Assets Study estimates global pension fund assets across 22 major pension markets (the P22). These geographies now total a record US$56.6 trillion in pension assets and account for 76% of the GDP of these economies. The study, conducted by WTW and the Thinking Ahead Institute since the 1990s, includes an analysis of the seven largest markets (the P7): Australia, Canada, Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland, UK and US comprise 92% of total pension assets, unchanged...

UK. Nearly half of savers in the dark when switching providers

More than four in 10 pension savers said they would not know what to look for when switching providers. More than two in five of the 2,104 savers surveyed by B&CE, the provider of The People’s Pension, would be likely to transfer their savings between providers if they could use a website that allowed them to see their pensions in one place. The findings are the latest in a flurry of research conducted into consumer behaviour surrounding the pensions dashboards, which...

UK. DWP publishes draft dashboard regulations

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has launched a consultation on the draft pensions dashboards regulations. The consultation seeks views on the draft regulations which make provision for requirements to be met by pension dashboard services or the providers of these services, and by trustees or managers of relevant UK occupational pension schemes. Read also UK. Prudential reports itself to regulator over AVC failings The regulations - which the DWP said will apply to all registrable UK-based occupational pension schemes with...

January 2022

Kenya. NSSF Members to Access Pension Services Through M-Pesa App

The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) members can now access pension services through the NSSF Mini App on the M-Pesa Super App. Following a NEW partnership with Safaricom, customers can register for NSSF membership, keep track of their contributions, top-up and manage their NSSF account, and make Tenant Purchase Scheme (TPS) payments through the "Discover" option within the M-PESA Super App. Read also Iranian Teachers Demand Fair Pay, Pension Adjustment Anthony Omerikwa, Managing Trustee, NSSF said that the partnership is part of...

UK. Pension professionals demand dashboards and climate action

Pensions dashboards and climate change action ranked as the joint top priority for Society of Pension Professionals members, according to a new survey. The SPP’s survey, which polled around 7,000 pension professionals, questioned members on where they wanted the government and regulators to focus their energies over the next 12 months and the next three to five years. Almost a third of members placed the dashboards rollout as their top choice for the coming year, with 61 per cent of members...

Pensions dashboards should have interactive features, says ABI

Pensions dashboards should have interactive features to meet younger people’s digital needs, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI). The ABI commissioned research which found that seven in 10 working people would like dashboards to be interactive. The industry has been working on dashboards which will allow people to see all their pensions in one place for several years. Younger people were more likely than those of retirement age to want options which are not just “read-only”, including using modelling tools...

Lean Advice for New Investors

By Jarrod Wilcox, Zvi Bodie, & Dan di Bartolomeo As defined benefit pensions have been replaced by investor-directed defined contribution plans, implementing sound investment policies for retail investors of modest means has become a problem of increasing urgency. This group comprises most of the investor population across all countries. In the U.S. it is characterized by inadequate saving, failure to take advantage of materially higher payout for delayed Social Security benefits, extensive credit card debt, and pursuit of naïve investment...

December 2021

Japan’s Lesson for the World: Robots Won’t Save Us

Japan affords a preview of what the future of the United States, Australia, and Western Europe will become unless meaningful steps are taken to ensure that a nation’s relevance is measured by how it creates lives of dignity for its citizenry. But seeing this relevance has become difficult as much of the luster has gone from Japan studies. Wistful comments about heady days during the 1980s, when scholars of Japan were in demand, are still heard. But China now...