Global Pension Assets Hit $54 Trillion-Obinna Chima

Global pension assets have grown significantly to $54trillion, the Chief Executive Officer of the World Pension Summit (WPS), Mr. Chris Battaglia disclosed on Thursday.

Battaglia, made the remark at a media conference in Lagos, ahead of the third World Pension Summit ‘Africa Special,’ expected to take place in Abuja between September 27th and 28th, 2016.

According to him, in a lot of developed countries, pension assets are now more than 100 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“Global retirement assets are growing in size and volume and a shift from defined benefits to defined contribution. In most developed countries, pension assets have also grown in relation to their economies. With great assets come greater responsibility. Assets of the 300 pension funds globally averaged nearly $14trillion,” he added.

Earlier, the Director General of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, explained that the Commission, in furtherance to its mission of promoting a pension industry that impacts on nation-building and national development organised the first and second edition of the World Pension Summit ‘Africa Special’ in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

She stated that the themes of the previous summit were selected based on the need to lay solid foundation for the establishment of an enduring pension system in Africa and chart ways for effectively channeling the pension funds to sustainable investments such as railway, power and real estate.

Furthermore, the PenCom boss said it was envisaged that the summit would serve as a catalyst to actively stimulate economic development across the continent.

“The third summit which has as its theme: “Pension Innovations: The Africa Perspective,” is aimed at driving into greater prominence, the revolutionary strength and achievements of African governments in the area of pension and social benefits. It is expected that this year’s summit would again, bring together professionals and highly experienced resources from across the world in the areas of investment, actuarial science, insurance coverage and other pension related fields in other to consolidate on the gains of the first two summits.

“The third edition of the WPS promises to harness Africa’s talents in pension and other support services such as investment, insurance, actuarial valuations amongst others. Indeed, the summit would provide a platform among regulators and operators, both in pension and the financial market to usher a new dawn of innovations in pension administration, particularly towards extending coverage, promoting quality service delivery and to channel pension funds safely towards investments that have visible and measure impact on the continent,” the PenCom boss added.

Culled from Thisday

Clinton and Trump should beware the 'infrastructure genie' Rick Newman

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Roads! Bridges! They’re coming to save the US economy.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both want to spend 12-figure sums to rebuild infrastructure, create thousands of jobs and stimulate economic growth. There’s even a kind of bidding war on the matter. Clinton, the Democrat, wants to spend close to $300 billion on new construction, which would be the most in decades. Republican Trump has said he’d double that spending.

But the more the next president spends, the more disappointing the results may be. “There are good reasons to be skeptical,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and a former director of the Congressional Budget Office, says in the video above. “Infrastructure [spending] isn’t really as great as it’s often portrayed to be.”

One reason for that involves timing. Big spending on infrastructure does make sense during a recession, when unemployment is high and the economy is shrinking. Putting people to work building things keeps income flowing to otherwise-idle workers who are likely to spend most of it, reducing the severity of a downturn. That’s what happened with the 2009 stimulus plan, which went into effect as the unemployment rate was soaring toward 10%.

The unemployment rate now is just 4.9%, nearly as low as it can go. Construction has been strong and there may not even be that many qualified workers to man big stimulus programs. With less slack in the labor force, infrastructure spending tends to generate less bang for the buck. Holtz-Eakin, who has advised Republican politicians, cites CBO research that found a massive infrastructure program on the scale of Trump’s proposal would boost economic growth by less than 1 percentage point.

Upgrading the arteries of the nation’s economy would have benefits. It would make some businesses at least a little more efficient. And it makes sense to do such a thing when interest rates are low, as they are now, since the government would pay less for any money it borrowed.

But there are still financial constraints. Borrowing to cover the entire cost of new infrastructure programs would push the national debt—which already tops $19 trillion—closer to the danger zone. Clinton would pay for all her roads and bridges with new taxes on the wealthy, and tax hikes are usually bad for the economy, since they inhibit spending and cut into growth. That offsets part of the gain from infrastructure spending. Holtz-Eakin refers to Clinton-Trump-style stimulus as “the infrastructure genie,” arguing that the promise far exceeds the likely reality.

Thing is, there aren’t many other big ideas in either candidate’s plan that seem likely to juice a slow-growing economy. Economists widely pan Trump’s plan to rework free-trade deals and impose tariffs on imports, saying it would do more harm than good. Many of Clinton’s economic ideas involve new subsidies paid for with new taxes, which tends to move wealth around instead of creating more of it. At least roads and bridges help you get somewhere.

Culled from yahoo finance

Achieving a Happy Retirement- Odunze Reginald C

According to Donna Rosato  in an article captioned “5 secrets to a happy retirement-“ noted that “Busy retirees tend to be happier. But just how active do you have to be? Moss has put a number on it. He found that the happiest retirees engage in three to four activities regularly; the least happy, only one or two. “The happy retiree group had extraordinarily busy schedules,” he says. “I call it hobbies on steroids.”
Rosato (op cited) noted that “For the biggest boost to your happiness, pick a hobby that’s social. The top pursuits of the happiest retirees include volunteering, travel, and golf; for the unhappiest, they’re reading, hunting, fishing, and writing. “The happiest people don’t do things in isolation,” says Moss.
That’s no surprise when you consider that people 65 and older get far more enjoyment out of socializing than younger people do.”

This is agreement with Merrill Lynch survey  who “found that nearly three out of four people over 50 said their ideal retirement would include working. Which is fine. Staying connected to the work world in some way can not only offer financial benefits, it can also keep retirees more active and socially engaged”

But be as it may, they tend to be happy and according to Dave Bernard in an article captioned “Finding Retirement state of mind” which appeared in US News .he stated that “they appear to be genuinely happy with their state of affairs and making the most of each day. When you ask about their retirement experience they shine a genuine smile and are happy to regale you – often at length – about how wonderful it is to be in their shoes. Their happiness is infectious and you may find yourself caught up in their joy. Although it is safe to assume not everything is perfect in their world, their overall outlook is positive.

But does it relate to Africa, and Nigeria in particular, from my little experience any forum organized for retirees normally had a large turnout, indicating that there is that urgent need for socialization. Even though psychologist has noted human beings are gregarious, but on overall outlook they tend to treasure human relationship in the form of socialization.

But can retirees afford the huge cost of socialization? One of the major means alleviating such expenditure is to join volunteer group, but is it effective in Africa and Nigeria in particular.

Odunze Reginald is the Lead Consultant, Chareg Consulting, a management and marketing  consultant  a social media and social marketing consultant , you can visit our twitter anchor @dunzereg, find us on Facebook @ Reginald odunze and reginaldodunze.com, at google+ @ Reginald Odunze and at Linkedin@reginald odunze.

 

 

 

Business Sun Trust: 10 Things Every Nigerian Should Know About the Branchless Bank

SunTrust Bank formally opens for business today as it seeks to reshape the Nigerian banking space and the way consumers interface with their banks.



Many have continued to ask questions about the mode of operation of the bank which has no branch or branches.

Here are 10 things you should know about the Sun Trust Bank:

1. The bank though with no branches has its headquarters at Oladele Olashore street in Victoria Island Lagos.

2. The banking hall is completely different, no kiosks or cashiers and it looks more like an airport lounge, signaling a total dependence on technology in its service offerings to the public.

3. The bank promises to offer telephone, mobile and Internet banking underpinned by the traditional banking ethics of probity and integrity.

4. The bank does not plan to have any branch as it will rely on technology 100%.

5. Its services will be available to customers 24 hours daily, seven days a week and from anywhere in the world where there is a good Internet service.

6. The bank claimed that its data centre is outsourced, thus, ruling out the overbearing requirement to put on the generator at locations.

7. By adopting a branchless strategy, SunTrust will save the N100m-N120M required to build a modern branch and the about N2.5m it costs to run the generators at a typical bank branch.

8. Customers of SunTrust can use any bank’s ATM because the bank will not be charging them the fee charged by other banks for using ATM machines belonging to other banks.

9. Opening an account at the bank is easy free and it can be done by logging on to the website; www.suntrust.com

10. Money deposit into Suntrust is to be done by the bank’s ATM. These machines are currently available in USA and not in Nigeria yet.

 

Posted by Kemi

Culled from Nigeria bulletin

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Brooks Running is leading the charge against a controversial Olympics rule-Daniel Roberts

On Sunday night at the Rio Olympics, in the 100-meter track final, “The man, the myth, the running legend lived up to his name that we dare not mention.” That’s according to a summary of the action by the @rule40 Twitter account.

The summary is referring to Jamaican runner Usain Bolt, of course. But the account is showing faux deference to Rule 40, the US Olympic Committee’s restrictions against brands that are not official Olympics sponsors. While the account can be humorous, its overall tone is quite serious: non-official sponsors are angry about the rule, and are fighting back.

Who’s behind the account? The Berkshire Hathaway-owned sneaker company Brooks Running, based in Seattle, which sponsors 12 athletes competing at this year’s Olympics. Brooks CEO Jim Weber says Rule 40 must change.

In addition to the @rule40 Twitter handle, Brooks owns the rule40.com domain name, and is using both to wage a PR war against the USOC.

Under Rule 40 guidelines, non-official sponsors cannot refer to the Olympics in any marketing, advertising, or social media during a blackout period that begins nine days before the opening ceremony and ends three days after the closing ceremony. During the blackout, athletes can post about their sponsors if they don’t also mention the Olympics in the same post, a catch that is new this year as part of a change to the rule. (In the past, the athletes couldn’t post about their non-Olympics sponsors at all during the blackout, and non-Olympics sponsors could not post about their Olympic athletes at all during the blackout.)

The rule is unpopular with non-Olympics sponsors and with many athletes, but it is rooted in the USOC’s special heightened trademark protection from Congress. And the USOC argues that it must police social media so vigorously because if it relaxed its rules there would be less value in its official sponsorships, which big consumer brands like Coca-Cola and Panasonic have reportedly spent $200 million on.

It was the Wall Street Journal that first outed Brooks as the company behind the anti-Rule 40 campaign, reporting in July that the domain name was registered to the director of sports marketing at Brooks. Brooks, the WSJ wrote, had gone “undercover.”

View photos

Brooks CEO Jim Weber confirmed the role Brooks has in the anti-Rule 40 campaign, and expanded on it to Yahoo Finance.

“We launched rule40.com to draw attention to the restrictions it places on athletes and their ability to market themselves during the highest profile time of their running careers,” he says.

Brooks is not alone: Oiselle, a women’s athletic apparel brand also based in Seattle (it’s pronounced “wa-ZELL”), has joined in the effort. Its CEO, Sally Bergesen, has been an outspoken opponent of Rule 40, using her Twitter account to criticize and appearing on television. (See above Yahoo Finance video for more.) Bergesen’s hope is to spur change for next time, in 2020—change such as allowing track & field athletes to display the name and logo of a sponsor on their uniform. (They currently cannot, while swimmers and golfers, for example, can, which critics see as arbitrary.)

As the LA Times reported, the rule has led to a lot of snark. For example, Oiselle on its official corporate blog began referring to the Olympics as “the big event in the southern hemisphere.”

The Rule 40 campaign, Weber cautions, is not about Brooks. It is about the athletes. “We wanted to bring forward the facts of the situation that so many athletes find themselves in and present them in a playful, tongue-in-cheek fashion… [and] highlight its negative impact. We hope it’s a good start to a bigger conversation. We believe the rules have to change in order for athletes to benefit from the years they invest in their athletic careers. We think Rule 40 should change.”

Culled from yahoo finance

New retirement rules could save you hundreds of thousands of dollars-Nicole Goodkind

Financial advisors are supposed to look out for your best interests, but up until April, investment pros weren’t held to a “fiduciary standard,” which requires them to put their clients’ interest above everything else. The rule was passed by the Department of Labor and takes effect next year.

“It’s not as if people have been getting bad advice,” says Jean Setzfand, Financial Security VP of AARP. “But there are two different levels of responsibility, the suitability standard and the fiduciary standard.” The suitability standard allows financial advisors to recommend suitable products that match your current risk profile, but they can recommend products that come with higher fees. The fiduciary standard means that advisors need to recommend products in their clients’ best long-term interests, which means products with the lowest fees. Financial advisors who are recommending retirement products will soon be required to meet these higher-level fiduciary standards.

“If I have two products available to me and one is higher-priced and the other one is lower-priced under suitability, the advisor could recommend any product, and for their best interest they’ll recommend the higher because they get a higher commission off of it,” says Setzfand. “Under fiduciary, they have to give me the one that’s lower-cost because that’s in my best interest.”

These fees are typically hidden from consumers and can add up to a significant amount over the course of 30 years, often to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So what can you do to make sure your financial advisor is acting in your best interests? Always ask whether they’re acting as a fiduciary while advising you on your retirement accounts. Don’t worry about offending them either. “If they tell you they’re offended, maybe you should start thinking about another advisor,” says Setzfand.

You should always ask your advisor exactly what you’re paying for. There are several layers of fees within retirement products; make sure you go through each with your advisor. Some common fees to look out for and discuss are plan administration fees, investment fees and individual service fees. 

Culled from yahoo finance