‘Peeps’ Try to Peck Through a Pension Shell
A Pennsylvania maker of colored marshmallow ‘chicks’ wants to be the first company in a ‘closed MEP’ pension plan to stay in the plan but put all new hires...
Pensions
Alcoa transfers DB risk to Sun Life and others
Sun Life Financial, Desjardins Financial Security Life Assurance Company, and Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc. (IAFS) will begin making benefit payments to the affected plan participants by...
In Canada, ‘LIFE’ Begins at 85
Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald (right or below), a research fellow at Toronto's Ryerson University, proposes a voluntary, tontine-like deferred income annuity called Lifetime Income for the Elderly (LIFE). Canadians could make...
MassMutual aims to compete harder for defined benefit business
PensionSmart Analysis, as MassMutual calls its newest tool, is available to DB plan sponsors through financial advisors and consultants who serve the pension recordkeeping, investments and actuarial marketplaces.
DC plans deliver less income than DB plans, study shows
Expansion of DC coverage, wider use of auto-enrollment and auto-escalation of contributions, and reduced leakage would help turn the situation around, according to the Center for Retirement Research at...
MassMutual offers customized pension yield curves to DB clients
MassMutual issued a white paper on its yield curve methodology and compares it with other yield curves available on the market. The white paper is available to plan sponsors...
Dream-House Shopping in Costa Rica
The house was for sale. Its mystical vibe seduced them into paying $150,000 in cash. Monkeys, sloths, macaws, butterflies and gekkos would be their neighbors as the couple aged....
Skin in the (Costa Rican Retirement) Game
How do Costa Ricans pay for retirement? In San Jose, Alvaro Ramos Chaves (above), the pensions regulator, told RIJ how his nation’s mandatory DB and DC plans work. His...
Will pensions become subject to state income tax in Illinois?
AARP is leading an effort to prevent fiscally-challenged Illinois from taxing pension income again after a holiday of 32 years. Reinstating the tax would bring in an estimated $2...
Pension risk transfers have varied effects, actuaries say
Pension risk transfers may include the purchase of annuities from life insurers, the payment to plan participants of lump sums, and/or the restructuring of plan investments to reduce risk...
TIAA creates fund to invest in ‘super-regional’ malls
Super-regional malls are “a distinctly strong and stable performer throughout multiple cycles,” said Suzan Amato, managing director of TIAA Global Asset Management.
European pension executives criticize quantitative easing
The European Central Bank is “distorting the market” for corporate debt, several pension executives said at an institutional investors' summit in Vienna this week.
Pension buy-out volume up 21% in first quarter
At $1.084 billion, first quarter sales exceeded $1 billion for the first time since 2008 on 68 transactions, according to the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute.
Conning study assesses pension risk transfer (PRT) market
'Longevity risk may be a future issue for U.S. insurers since they currently do not incur a longevity charge under RBC,' Conning analyst Scott Hawkins told RIJ in an...
Group annuity risk transfer sales top $14 billion in 2015: LIMRA
In the fourth quarter, group annuity risk transfer sales were $5.8 billion or almost 19% lower than the previous year. Total assets of buy-out products increased 10%, to $90...
U.S. ranked 15th in pension excellence: Mercer
Both the Dutch and Danish systems were highlighted as “first class” in the seventh edition of the survey, while Sweden rose from sixth place to tie for fifth with...
‘De-Risky’ Business
Prudential has dominated the burgeoning market in jumbo pension buyouts. In the week following Prudential deals with JC Penney and Philips Electronics, RIJ spoke with Peggy McDonald (above), an...
Prudential buys a chunk of JCPenney pension
A portion of plan assets and liabilities of some 43,000 retirees and beneficiaries will move to Prudential without a cash contribution from JCPenney, according to a release. The deal...
BlackRock now manages $123 billion in Japanese savings
BlackRock is now Japan’s second-largest manager of DB assets after Sumitomo Mitsui Trust, according to the Japan Pensions Industry Database.
AXA’s UK pension fund uses longevity swap
Insurers will be subject to additional capital requirements when Solvency II kicks in later this year, requiring companies to shore up longevity within their books and their own pension...
