All articles by Maria Teresa Cometto – Page 6
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: PE in the firing line
US public pension funds may play a role they would prefer to avoid in the 2016 presidential campaign as protagonists in the politically controversial private equity (PE) industry. Indeed, one of the reasons the Republican Mitt Romney lost the race to the White House was his connections to the sector.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Central States snag
A pensions bust-up is looming on the fringes of the 2016 Presidential campaign, involving the 115,500 retirees of the Central States Pension Fund (CSPF) who face a 28% average cut of their monthly pension. But the stakes are much larger. Senator Bernie Sanders, one of the Democratic presidential contenders, is championing the rights of those retirees. His attempt to stop the cuts with a new law could affect the whole pension industry.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Lower expectations
Most US state retirement systems are cutting their investment return predictions. But this is still not enough, according to critics, and a minority of public pension funds are retaining optimistic assumptions and aggressive strategies.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: From small beginnings
The US private retirement annuity market is quite small. But it is likely to grow dramatically thanks to the convergence of various factors
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: A new way of thinking
Three years ago car makers Ford and General Motors opened the way to a new means of de-risking defined-benefit (DB) pension plans. They offered a lump sum to participants who were receiving benefits
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Country Report
Politics: The land of perpetual reform
Maria Teresa Cometto looks at the recent changes to the Italian pension system and asks what has been achieved as politicians pander to popular opinion seeking to reverse key reforms
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Reform challenge
The head of one of America’s largest financial product providers recently gave a provocative talk on retirement to a think tank based in New York
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: DB pensions bond bind
US corporate pension funds are caught in a dilemma. They are buying long-dated bonds to match their liabilities but in doing so they are driving down their yields, making liabilities look more expensive
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Pensions push on climate change
US pension funds are using the meetings to push forward their agenda on climate change
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Move to put clients first
Who will manage the new My Retirement Account (MyRA) pension savings vehicle? This is a big question for the US pension fund industry now that President Barack Obama has created the new programme.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Funding under pressure
Wall Street posted record highs in 2014 but this was not enough to compensate for other negative factors affecting US corporate pension plans. Their funding status dropped from 89% at the end of 2013 to 80% by the end of 2014, according to Towers Watson, and the pension deficit increased to $343bn (€303bn), doubling that of 2013. Overall pension plan funding fell by $181bn.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: A model for future cuts?
The pension industry is concerned with the consequences of a bipartisan amendment to the $1.1trn (€924 bn) ominbus spending bill that Congress approved in December. This cuts benefits for multi-employer plan members and experts are now debating whether it is a model for further cuts across the industry.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Data managers
Technological tools, data management, attention to governance and transparency are the most important issues for pension fund CIOs right now.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: End to pensions taboo
Pension reform is no longer a taboo subject for voters: this is one of the outcomes of the 4 November mid-term elections.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Pensions and start-ups
Can pension funds play a greater role in stimulating start-ups and economic growth? Some US politicians think so and are trying to deploy public retirement assets for this goal. But critics claim that results have been disappointing so far, mostly because pension funds invest through private equity funds that demand very high fees. So a new idea is gaining support – pension funds investing directly in private companies, cutting out intermediaries.
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Opinion Pieces
Woody at work
Woody is the villain of the new book The US Pension Crisis – What We Need to Do Now to Save America’s Pensions, by Ronald Ryan. According to Ryan, Woody is the “pension pencil” or “the weapon of mass destruction in financial America”, used since the 1990s for accounting gimmicks that conceal the real financial situation of pension funds.
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Opinion Pieces
Rethink on alternatives
After five strong years in the equity markets, some US pension funds are disappointed by the performance of their alternative assets and moving out, while others are keeping them but focusing on de-risking.
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Country Report
Italy: Revolution, not evolution
Maria Teresa Cometto surveys three issues in Italian pensions – politics, slow growth and lack of commitment to pension savings
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Opinion Pieces
On track with 401(k)
Individual retirement savings accounts (IRAs) have been helping US workers navigate the ups and downs of Wall Street since the 2008 financial crisis. IRAs and employer-sponsored defined contribution (DC) plans grew to $6.5trn and $5.9trn (€4.8trn and €4.3trn), respectively, at year-end 2013, up from $5.6trn and $5trn the previous year, according to data in the 2014 Investment Company Fact Book.
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Opinion Pieces
TIAA-CREF expands
Six years after taking the helm as president and CEO of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association – College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF), Roger Ferguson announced the acquisition of Nuveen Investments in April for $6.25bn (€4.5bn), including debt.
