All Letter from the US articles – Page 2
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Opinion PiecesUS: Pension plans face up to a tough 2022
After the terrible returns of the fiscal year that ended in June, what will US public pension funds do? Will they increase their risky investments to try to reach their target returns? Or will they lower their target returns?
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Opinion PiecesUS: Transparency concerns over SEC private market disclosure rules
Will the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) new climate risk reporting rules bring more transparency to private markets? Or will they have the unintended consequences of increasing the opacity of the markets?
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Opinion PiecesUS: The great unfreeze - does it make sense to reopen DB plans?
US defined benefit (DB) public and corporate pension funds are responding differently to inflationary pressures. Public schemes are more concerned about the negative impact of financial market turmoil on their returns, while corporates are enjoying the rising discount rates that are lowering their liabilities and improving their funded status.
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Opinion PiecesUS: A cautious approach on private assets in DC plans
Will 2022 be the year when private equity is finally incorporated in US defined contribution (DC) plan line-ups? Possibly, following the Department of Labor’s (DoL’s) clarification of its position in a letter last December. But it will be a very slow process, according to industry experts.
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Opinion PiecesUS: Fidelity’s retirement account crypto move raises concerns
Even six months ago it looked like crypto investing was not going to become mainstream any time soon in 401(k) plans – and since then Bitcoin has halved in value. But the market’s sentiment and trend are changing very quickly. So much so that Fidelity Investments has now become the first major retirement-plan provider to allow investors to add a Bitcoin account to their 401(k). The move was announced in late April.
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Opinion PiecesUS: The SEC’s new climate disclosure rule is a watershed
Most investors, asset managers and consultants look like they are in favour.
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Opinion PiecesLetter from US: US pension funds decide on Russian holdings
“We support efforts at all levels of government and across the public and private sectors, which include cross-functional and multi-agency partnerships, to divest State Treasury and pension funds from investments in Russian-domiciled companies. We are committed to taking steps that include divesting as soon as possible to have the quickest and most meaningful impact on this tragic situation.”
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Opinion PiecesLetter from US: ESG faces backlash in some US states over fossil fuels
Is there a backlash against the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing movement?
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Opinion PiecesLetter from US: Upcoming court ruling could create complications for DC plan sponsors
By the first half of this year, the United States Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision that could affect the defined-contribution (DC) industry. The case is Hughes vs Northwestern University, one of about 150 similar class-action lawsuits filed nationally in the past few years, alleging that plan fiduciaries breached their duty of prudence under ERISA, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.
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Opinion PiecesLetter from US: Liquidity tops the agenda for US pension plans
Monitoring and managing liquidity will be a major issue for many US pension funds in 2022. The risk of a liquidity crunch affects public systems above all, but corporate plans are not immune.
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Opinion PiecesLetter from US: Crypto currencies gain a toe-hold in America’s 401(k) retirement plans
Crypto investing is not going to become mainstream any time soon in 401(k) plans. But the US retirement market is becoming more and more sophisticated – investors are becoming interested in digital assets, and asset managers, platform providers and consultants are all developing digital products and services.
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Opinion PiecesLetter from US: University endowments setting the pace on fossil fuel divestment
US university and college endowments control more than $600bn (€517bn) of investments. Their policies often influence the behaviour of public pensions. So it is interesting to see whether Harvard’s recent decision to end its investments in fossil fuels will be followed not only by other universities but also by retirement systems.
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Opinion PiecesLetter from US: SEC looks towards mandatory ESG disclosure by companies
October will be an important month for investors and corporations as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will then propose new rules on climate change and other environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.
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Opinion PiecesLetter from US: Hybrid plans in focus
The move from defined benefit (DB) pension plans to defined contribution (DC) has been ongoing for years in the US, both in the private and public sector. But more recently many state and local governments have adopted hybrid designs.
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Opinion PiecesLetter from US: The rise of the new alternatives
Pension funds and other institutional investors used to invest in hedge funds aspiring to outperform public stock and bond benchmarks. Now, after years of disappointing performances, they have changed their attitude. They still invest in hedge funds, but the new expectation is simply to get a few percentage points above the return on zero risk investments.
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Opinion PiecesLetter from US: Aid without reform set to resolve the multi-employer pension plan crisis
Until March, The prospective collapse of multi-employer pension plans meant that over one million retired truck drivers, shop assistants, builders and other members of 186 schemes were at risk of losing their retirement benefits.
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Opinion PiecesLetter from US: Pension bonds raise concerns
The resurgence of interest in pension obligation bonds (POBs) is one of the effects of the pandemic on the US pension funds industry. Indeed in 2020 POB issuance reached its highest level in a decade, exceeding $6bn (€5bn), according to Municipal Market Analytics (MMA), an independent research firm focusing on the US municipal bonds.
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Opinion PiecesLetter from US: COVID and racial justice to the fore
The 2021 proxy season’s hot issues are human capital management related to COVID-19 and social justice. Several large US public pension funds are at the forefront of these campaigns together with non-profit shareholder advocacy organisations like the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) and As You Sow, a non-profit foundation that promotes corporate accountability.
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Opinion PiecesLetter from US: HSAs set to build on popularity
The Health Savings Account (HSA) is becoming increasingly popular as a retirement savings vehicle in the US. The new Biden presidency and the now Democrat controlled Congress are likely to accentuate this trend in 2021 and beyond.
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Opinion PiecesLetter from US: Don’t anticipate radical reform
The new Joe Biden administration is unlikely to revolutionise US pension plans, but it could broaden the base of workers able to join defined contribution plans such as 401(k)s. It may also cancel recent rules and return to the previous regulations set under Barack Obama.
