With over a million policyholders, it is one of Britain's three biggest providers of pensions.
The shortfall matters all the more because private saving contributes much more to retirement income in Britain than in most other countries.But faith in the life-insurance industry the principal provider of individual pensions and other forms of long-term saving has been undermined by scandals like the mis-selling of personal pensions.
The Equitable, one of the UK's leading providers of personal pensions, came close to collapse in 2000, and in the process became one of the UK's biggest financial scandals.
The Internal Revenue Service issued final regulations on required minimum distributions from retirement plans last April, and now "the bottom line is that you can take less money out," said Nicholas Kaster of CCH Inc., a provider of tax and pension information.
State Street, a provider of mutual fund and pension-processing services, is preparing to book a $279 million fourth-quarter charge related to expected lawsuits over the weak performance of certain fixed-income strategies managed by the investment division.
The Democrats are the party of government; systematically reducing government's ability to provide services, its employment base, and its role as a provider of the two most essential guarantees, pensions and medical care, cuts off the Democrats' oxygen supply.
This sends a clear message: save more if you want to retire earlier, or work longer.Define and fallA response to population ageing also requires a rebalancing of pensions away from defined benefits, where the pension provider promises a given pension at a given age, towards defined contributions, in which pensions depend on the amount saved and the investment returns it generates.
That offer, which came as surprise to Number 10, was quickly followed by China Railway Group, a subsidiary of the state owned China Railway Engineering Corporation, saying that it could also help with construction projects connected to HS2. "HS2 could be an attractive investment opportunity," Sir Gerry, who is also the chairman of pension provider, Standard Life, said.
That offer, which came as surprise to Number 10, was quickly followed by China Railway Group, a subsidiary of the state owned China Railway Engineering Corporation, saying that it could also help with construction projects connected to HS2. "HS2 could be an attractive investment opportunity," said Sir Gerry, who is also the chairman of pension provider, Standard Life.
As we are on the subject of pensions, there is also the collective deficit of the UK's solvent private-sector schemes, which according to the pension provider JLT currently stands at £177bn.
