HOW IT WORKS

COUNTRY AWARDS

There is one award per country for the “Best Pension Fund” in: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Small countries (pop. <1m) NEW!, 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 2009 were (please note categories may vary slightly from one year to another):

  • Commodities Investing
  • DB / DC Structuring / Strategies
  • Emerging markets (investing in)
  • ESG / Corporate Governance
  • Hedge Funds (Investing in)
  • Innovation
  • Portfolio Construction / Risk Management
  • Real Estate (Investing in)
  • Specialist Investment Manager (use of)

NEW FOR 2009:

  • Best In-House Investment Team/Pension Fund Owned Investment Manager

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

EUROPEAN BRONZE AWARDS

  • Equities (Investing in)
  • Fixed Income (Investing in)

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

*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.

A fourth Silver Award is awarded for the:

  • Best Small Pension Fund

Every pension fund whose AUM are below the €1bn mark, are 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

And two special Awards are also presented for:

  • Outstanding Industry Contribution
  • Consultant of the Year

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 2009, 60 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 has now closed. Winners can be found under "2009 Winners".