Latest from IPE Magazine
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Country Report
Netherlands Country Report 2024: The pension transition dilemma
Dutch pension funds must tread a fine line between protecting funding levels and ensuring sufficient returns as they move to defined contribution
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Special Report
Manager selection: Solving the pension liquidity puzzle
Advisers and fiduciary managers are working as hard as ever to meet the liquidity needs of pension funds
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Asset Class Reports
Emerging market equities: investors grapple with peak political risk
As billions of people head to the polls in 2024, how will politics influence flows to emerging market equities?
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Country Report
Dutch pension reform opponents running out of time
Political parties struggle to reach agreement on what an alternative pensions system could look like
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Special Report
Round table: Manager selection priorities for 2024
IPE asked eight manager research business leaders: what will be the three most important topics or trends in manager selection over the next 12 months and beyond?
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Asset Class Reports
Is India’s equity market now the new China in investors’ eyes?
Better governance and a clear economic path may put India in the lead
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Country Report
PFZW moves beyond oil and gas divestment
In a podcast recorded for IPE’s Dutch sister publication Pensioen Pro, Ravien Sewtahal of PFZW and Colin Tissen of the pension fund’s asset manager PGGM reflect on the Dutch healthcare scheme’s engagement programme with fossil fuel firms and PFZW’s next steps in climate engagement
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Asset Class Reports
A changing Saudi Arabia proves attractive for investors
Equity market is starting to open to investors as the country liberalises strict rules
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Country Report
Can DC participants trust the competence of Dutch pension funds?
The authors of a recent paper find that pension boards in the Netherlands have failed to reduce asset-liability risk and advocate for greater accountability of boards, advisers and investment staff
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Features
Investors are paying for hedge funds' reluctance to use hurdle rates
Although two years have now passed since the US Federal Reserve started rapidly hiking interest rates, the likelihood that your hedge fund manager will have a ‘hurdle rate’ – a minimum rate of return before performance fees kick in – has not changed. Only a quarter of hedge funds, by our count, have such a threshold in place and the practice does not yet show signs of becoming more widespread, even though the risk-free rate has now exceeded 4% for well over a year.
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Opinion Pieces
ATP at 60: no plans to retire the guaranteed pensions model
Now approaching retirement age itself, Danish statutory pension fund ATP is using its 60th birthday as an opportunity to reinforce the validity of its guarantee-based investment model.
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Opinion Pieces
Why General Electric’s pension management model has finally passed its prime
The late Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric for two decades until 2001, was not only a legendary businessman who grew GE’s market cap 30-fold over his tenure. He also inspired a minor revolution in pension fund management that dates back to the days of mainframe computers and telex machines.
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Opinion Pieces
A new era for pension fund liquidity management
With inflation past its peak and central banks signalling monetary easing, investors can look forward to a prolonged period when interest rates will be at normal levels – barring any surprise decline in economic growth or other kinds of shocks.
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Opinion Pieces
Could Dutch pension reforms still be reversed?
1 January 2025: that’s the day the first Dutch pension funds will move to a defined contribution (DC) system according to the new Pension Act. So the clock is ticking for politicians who still hope to reverse the pension changes, or give members a say on the mandatory conversion of defined benefit (DB) accruals to DC capital, the most controversial part of the pension reform.
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Analysis
A template for innovation and investment opportunity in health services
Introducing innovations into entrenched organisations is always a challenge. No more so than in the UK’s much loved, much criticised and, many would argue, barely functioning National Health Service (NHS). Yet revolutions in AI and technology should be able to transform the NHS for the better in a cost-effective manner.
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Opinion Pieces
US pension plans wrestle with China private market exposure
After a horrible 2023, Chinese stocks look cheap and attractive. But most US pension funds do not seem interested in investing in the Chinese stock market. On the contrary, they have reduced their holdings since 2020 and some are exiting entirely, according to Bloomberg analysis.
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Opinion Pieces
Australia connects retirement income sources
Australia, a country with the world’s fourth-largest pool of retirement savings, is caught in a curious bind. At issue is how to transition Australians from saving to spending.
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Analysis
Can Alecta overcome its woes after further embarrassing blunders?
A new investment leadership team is seeking to draw a line under the continuing governance debacle at the €110bn Swedish pension giant and will reset the investment strategy
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Opinion Pieces
An opportunity to reimagine private capital in Europe
Enrico Letta’s long-awaited report on the future of the European Union’s single market is set to spark a major debate among EU leaders. As Europe faces a rapidly evolving strategic landscape, the former Italian prime minister’s findings, due to be published this spring, could help shape thinking on European integration ahead of the upcoming elections in June.
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Interviews
Pension funds revisit allocations to China
European pension funds have reduced their allocations to China as the outlook for the country’s economy becomes more uncertain