HOW IT WORKS

COUNTRY AWARDS

There is one award per country for the “Best Pension Fund 2008” in: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Central & Eastern Europe. In each country the winner is selected from a shortlist of finalists.

EUROPEAN "THEMED" AWARDS

This special category allows pension funds to highlight their capabilities in specialist areas. The areas for 2008 are (please note categories may vary slightly from one year to another):

  • Commodities
  • DB / DC Structuring / Strategies
  • Equities (Investing in)
  • Emerging markets (investing in)  -  NEW!!
  • Fixed Income (Investing in)
  • Hedge Funds (Investing in)
  • Innovation
  • Liability Driven Investments
  • Portfolio Construction
  • Real Estate (Investing in)
  • Risk Management
  • Specialist Investment Manager (use of)
  • SRI / Corporate Governance

Every pension fund entering for the Country Awards may enter any one or more of the Themed Awards. Please note categories may change.

EUROPEAN SILVER AWARDS

All of the short-listed finalists for the Country Awards are put forward automatically for consideration for the European Silver Awards *. These determined the best European pension funds at three levels:

  • Best Corporate Pension Fund 2008
  • Best Public Pension Fund 2008
  • Best Industry-Wide Pension Fund 2008

*This means that the winners of a Silver Award will not necessarily have won a Country Award. For example, in 2003 Germany's MetallRente won the Silver Award for Best Industry-Wide Pension Fund even though Vodafone (a corporate pension fund) had won the award for Best Pension Fund in Germany.

And for the third year, a fourth Silver Award will be awarded the:

  • Best Small Pension Fund 2008

Every pension fund whose AUM are below the €1bn mark, will be automatically entered for this European Award.

EUROPEAN GOLD AWARDS

The four winners of the European Silver Awards are judged against each other to determine:

  • Best European Pension Fund 2008

And two special Awards will also be presented for:

  • Outstanding Industry Contribution 2008
  • Consultant of the Year 2008

JUDGING THE AWARDS

IPE organises groups of consultants and pensions specialists to judge the awards for the Country Awards, the Themed Awards and the European Silver and Gold Awards. In 2007, 86 judges were involved from the whole European pensions community.

Once IPE has received all the awards entries they are forwarded to the judges. The judges score the application forms independently and submit these scores to IPE. We then aggregate the scores and declare the winners.

HOW TO ENTER THE COMPETITION

The competition for 2008 is now closed.

The winners will be announced during the IPE European Pension Fund Awards 2008 ceremony on Thursday 20 November in Barcelona.

A special supplement will be published and mailed out to all IPE readers with the december issue of Investment & Pensions Europe.