By The Editorial Board Source: The Los Angeles Times California has some of the nation’s leading climate policies, with hard deadlines to slash greenhouse gas emissions, switch to zero-emission cars and trucks and get 100% of its electricity from carbon-free sources. But so far, its leaders have lagged behind other states, like Maine and New York, in using another important tool — the financial power of its massive public pension funds — to hasten the nation’s independence from fossil [...]

By Brian Croce Source: Pensions & Investments A group of 25 states is seeking to halt the Department of Labor's new ESG rule from taking effect. Republican attorneys general from the 25 states, co-led by Ken Paxton of Texas and Sean D. Reyes of Utah, filed a lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Amarillo, Texas, arguing that the Labor Department's rule undermines key protections for retirement savers, oversteps the department's authority under the Employment Retirement Income Security Act, [...]

Following reports earlier this month that Albertsons shareholders were scheduled to receive a $4 billion dividend, CORPaTH Executive Director Ron Auer sent the following letter urging state attorneys general around the country to halt the payment pending confirmation the company will fulfill its pension obligations. Read the letter below

Source: The Segal Group On July 6, 2022, the PBGC released a final rule on the multiemployer Special Financial Assistance (SFA) program, which was created by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The final rule makes significant changes to key provisions in the 2021 interim final rule (IFR) to enable eligible plans, after receiving SFA, to pay all benefits and expenses due through 2051. Trustees of plans who are considering or revisiting the decision of whether to apply for [...]

By Bailey McCann Source: Pensions & Investments Institutional investors have focused on ESG for many years, but the industry may be reaching a tipping point in terms of the specificity and sophistication of ESG mandates. Against a backdrop of increasingly hard to ignore climate risks and social unrest brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the death of George Floyd and the war in Ukraine, institutions are moving away from passive exclusion strategies and leveraging new data to engage with [...]

By Justin Held Source: IFEBP According to the most recent data from The Multiemployer Retirement Plan Landscape: A Fifteen-Year Look (2004-2018), demographic trends in multiemployer plans have become less favorable as the number of actively working participants have decreased relative to the number of inactive and retired participants. However, plan trustees have made difficult decisions to improve plan funding, and financial markets have recovered somewhat from the 2008 collapse. Due to these actions, the majority of multiemployer defined benefit [...]

Source: National Institute on Retirement Security A new analysis finds that defined benefit (DB) pension plans offer substantial cost advantages over 401(k)-style defined contribution (DC) accounts. A typical pension has a 49 percent cost advantage as compared to a typical DC account, with the cost advantages stemming from longevity risk pooling, higher investment returns, and optimally balanced investment portfolios. The analysis also indicates that about four-fifths of the cost difference occurs during post-retirement years. Once retired, individuals typically experience [...]

By Lee Barney Source: Plan Sponsor U.S. Senators Tina Smith, D-Minnesota, and Patty Murray, D-Washington, and U.S. Representative Suzan DelBene, D-Washington, have introduced legislation in both chambers of Congress that they say would provide legal certainty to workplace retirement plans that choose to consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in their investment decisions or offer ESG investment options. The bill, called the Financial Factors in Selecting Retirement Plan Investments Act, would amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act [...]