The Canadian Bar Association and the American Bar Association together with the International Pension and Employee Benefits Lawyers Association (IPEBLA) announce a joint conference, to be held in Boston, USA, June 10-12, 2018. This two-day session will deal in-depth with legal issues concerning pensions and benefits in the context of a changing global environment. It will provide educational and networking possibilities for lawyers from all countries, with attendees encouraged

Pensions at a Glance 2017, a new report issued in December 2017 by the OECD, warns that further reforms are needed across OECD countries to mitigate the impact of population aging, increasing inequality among the elderly and changing the nature of work. The OECD also says that public spending on pensions for the OECD as a whole has risen by about 1.5% of GDP since 2000; however, the pace

As the growth of pan-European pension plans is reported to accelerate, asset manager Amundi and insurer LaLux jointly organize a topical half-day conference on 5 February 2018 in Luxembourg. Featured speakers include: Luxembourg Minister of Finance, Pierre Gramegna European Commission head of the insurance and pensions unit, Nathalie Berger PensionsEurope CEO, Matti Leppala EIOPA Executive Director, Fausto Parente Create Research CEO, Prof. Amin Rajan Group head of compensation &

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s report, Technology and Pensions, was released in December 2017, providing an overview of how technology (FinTech) is being used to improve pension design and delivery and how regulators are managing these changes. The report comes after a discussion on the challenges that regulators face to support FinTech from a roundtable held at the G20/OECD Task Force on Financial Consumer Protection meeting held

The Organization for Economic Development (OECD), in December 2017 released a new report, Robo-Advice for Pensions, which looks at the rising trend of technological innovation in finance, specifically the robo-advice model. This model has been proposed as one potential solution for helping individuals manage pensions and invest for retirement. Essentially, ‘robo-advisors’ propose to make investing more affordable and accessible for consumers by relying on user-friendly digital platforms, algorithms, and

Zurich’s International business (Zurich International) in August 2017 launched its Target Date Funds (TDFs) as part of the investment proposition available with the International Pension Plan (IPP), and International Corporate Investment Plan (ICIP). Zurich International claims it is the first financial services group to offer a US Dollar TDF solution in the International Pensions & Savings market. With their focus on simplicity, value for money and positive retirement outcomes

In a long overdue move, the European Commission in June 2017 unveiled a proposal for a pan-European personal pensions product (PEPP). PEPPs are designed to complement – not replace or harmonize  – existing state-based occupational and national personal pensions throughout the European Union. The PEPP forms part of the Commission’s plan to build a Capital Markets Union (CMU), wherein the Commission believes the new pension product will help to

Zurich Eurolife in June 2017 announced the acquisition of an existing book of international pension plans from AG2R La Mondiale’s (AG2R) Luxembourg-based subsidiary La Mondiale Europartner. The transaction is expected to close during the second half of 2017, after regulatory approval. The new agreement with La Mondiale Europartner will see their existing customers transfer to Zurich’s international pension plans. AG2R and Zurich have enjoyed close relationships for many years,

2016 was a symbolic year for pension systems in Japan. In November 2016, the Japanese Diet enacted new legislation that shortens the eligibility period for public pensions from 25 years to 10 years. This was followed the next month by a revision to the automatic balancing system.

Some ten months after selecting its key service providers, European cross-border pension plan RESAVER is poised to begin operations in March 2017. A brainchild of the European Commission, RESAVER is a pension plan specially designed for highly mobile researchers working at public and private research institutions and universities, SMEs, and research and technical development companies. It is advised by Aon Hewitt; BlackRock won the initial investment management mandate; and

The March 31, 2017 imposition of Article 50 has nervous Britons rushing to transfer their final salary pensions into overseas schemes. According to deVere Group, a large independent financial advisory organization, the percentage of inquiries about transferring pensions has risen 21% since the beginning of December. While there has been interest since the Brexit vote in June 2016, the surge to transfer pensions overseas intensified during December and promises

The European Commission in October 2016 conducted hearings with pension funds, asset managers, insurance undertakings, individuals, consumer associations, and public authorities  to debate the need for a pan-European pension product. The panel debates allowed stakeholders to determine if EU action fostering the emergence of European personal pension products is appropriate as well as proportionate. At stake are simple, affordable, and transparent pension plans that provide better returns. More investment

General Electric (GE) in September 2016 has had its European pension fund approved by FSMA, Belgium’s financial supervisory authority and the regulatory body for pension funds. GE is encouraging its existing European-based pension plans to join the fund, which takes the legal form of an Organisme de Financement de Pensions (OFP), Belgium’s IORP-compliant vehicle for pensions provisions. At this early stage, a management committee has been appointed. An IORP

Corporate pension plan buyouts reached $1.084 billion in the first quarter of 2016 according to a LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute sales survey. This is interpreted as a clear sign that companies are eager to limit the amount of risk in their pension plans. The US Group Annuity Risk Transfer Survey, released in May of this year, notes that this is the first time sales have topped $1 billion in

PPG Industries, the Pittsburgh-based coatings, specialty materials, and glass products manufacturer, in April 2016 announced that they will begin buying group annuity contracts in order to provide pension benefits to 13,000+ retirees and survivors in the U.S.A. PPG joins such large corporations as Kimberly-Clark Corp., Verizon, and General Motors, who have adopted this de-risking process in order to reduce premium payments to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp (PBGC). PBGC

The objective of Track and Trace Your Pension in Europe (TTYPE) is to allow E.U. citizens to find all relevant information about their pensions regardless of when and where they worked and accumulated pension rights. TTYPE’s European Tracking Service (ETS) extends and builds on existing National Tracking Services (NTS) that store the pension records of an employee along his/her changes in employers in one same country. After a planning

Despite moving at what may seem sometimes as a glacial pace, RESAVER, the pan-European pension plan project, appears to have reached a major milestone. RESAVER, which is set up as a defined contribution (DC) scheme that will provide second-pillar pension benefits, selected its key operational components – namely its third-party service providers – in April 2016, paving the way for its launch. BlackRock has been selected as the asset

A 2015 survey of U.K. defined contribution (DC) pension plans reveals that there is a disconnect between what new initiatives they want to deliver and what they can actually provide. The Aon DC Survey 2015 revealed that out of 330 respondents from 297 U.K. DC pension plans, 57% of respondents feel that the top priority for DC schemes is better member outcomes, while 47% identified the need for specific

GBV magazine publishes this 14-page, in-depth article which discusses alternative investments and their suitability for life insurance in general and pension liabilities in particular. By and large, alternative investments are investments in assets other than equities, bonds and cash. They include real estate, commodities such as oil, cocoa and gold, capital goods such as ships and aircraft, and even more exotic categories: hedge funds, private equity, project finance, venture

European Union authorities signal a stronger commitment towards furthering the integration of private pension systems across Europe and extending the single market to insurance and pensions. In November 2015, the European Commission highlighted efforts by a number of countries in reforming their first-pillar pension systems, especially in the view of increased longevity. At the same time, it insisted that further steps needed to be taken by member states to

Brazil’s Social Security sector has undergone several transformations since it was implemented in the distant year of 1821, when the country still was a Portuguese colony. The existing models date back to 1923, when the country’s railway companies created a Retirement and Pensions Fund to cover their employees. Today, Brazil has three main pension schemes: the General Pension Scheme, managed by the National Social Security Institute and run by the government, to which all formally employed workers are entitled; the Special Public Servants’ Regimes; and Supplemental Pension Plans.

Demographic factors and the current socio-economic context present major challenges to the statutory (i.e., state) pensions system. Lowering the statutory pension age is not an option, nor is increasing contributions. These two factors together inevitably lead to a tightening of the conditions for access to statutory pensions and to early retirement, as recent government measures in this area confirm.

While Mexico’s principal mandatory pension system began as a Defined Benefit (DB) program in 1973, in 1997 it was changed to a Defined Contribution (DC) plan, with individual accounts managed by financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies. This DC system is still open to new members, while the DB pension one is closed.

As of January 1, 2016, American International Group (AIG) will freeze defined benefit (DB) pension plans for its U.S. employees and enhance its offering of 401(k) defined contribution (DC) plans. In so doing, AIG ceases incurring additional pension liabilities and transfers risk onto the shoulders of its employees. De-risking pensions by reducing DB exposure is a common course of action since the mid-2000s, recommended by insurers and consultants alike.

The trend for employers to move from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) pension plans is a global phenomenon. Many multinational companies now have pension guidelines that encourage or even require pension provision to be granted using a defined contribution approach, and some emerging economies without long-standing pension systems have skipped DB benefit provision altogether.