Asset Allocation – Page 139

  • Growing demand for thematic ETFs
    Features

    Growing demand for thematic ETFs

    May 2008 (Magazine)

    As the ETF market moves towards more specialist products, Nina Röhrbein looks at fixed income, leveraged and style funds

  • Institutions focus on risk
    Features

    Institutions focus on risk

    May 2008 (Magazine)

    German investment managers are seeing increasing demand for risk management services, including high reporting standards. And this has heightened in the wake of the credit crunch. Barbara Ottawa asked asset managers for their views on current thinking and on the outlook and trends in institutional business

  • Features

    Markets still off the norm

    May 2008 (Magazine)

    Yield curve/duration Central banks across the world have been putting in place new measures in order to melt the liquidity freeze. Market conditions have generally improved over the month, although have hardly returned to anything like their historical norms. For example, spreads between LIBOR and other rates remain very wide ...

  • Moving towards specialisation
    Features

    Moving towards specialisation

    May 2008 (Magazine)

    As the ETF market becomes more mature and efficient providers are looking for opportunities elsewhere. Nina Röhrbein examines the evolution

  • Features

    A never-ending story

    May 2008 (Magazine)

    Attempts to ensure the sustainability of Germany’s pension system have been underway for years, say Klaus Stiefermann and Cornelia Schmid

  • Saying it right
    Features

    Saying it right

    May 2008 (Magazine)

    The complexity of pension investments makes communication very important. Does the Dutch uniform pension statement offer a solution? Rachel Fixsen reports

  • No swing from DB but US corporates face financial and demographic crunch
  • Why a global scope assures GTAA returns
    Features

    Why a global scope assures GTAA returns

    April 2008 (Magazine)

    In spite of recent reverses, global tactical asset allocation has developed from an add-on strategy to an integral part of a pension fund’s investment portfolio, according to a recent study. David White reports

  • Waiting for a breakthrough
    Features

    Waiting for a breakthrough

    April 2008 (Magazine)

    Investment consultants has seen little change since the 2003 reforms but actuaries find business is booming, says Rachel Fixsen

  • Special Report

    Ownership creates involvement

    April 2008 (Magazine)

    Stakeholders in defined benefit pension funds should redefine who exactly takes which risks, what constitutes solvency and who owns which part of it. Theo Kocken takes the baton in the first instalment in a series of discussion papers

  • Redefining DC
    Features

    Redefining DC

    April 2008 (Magazine)

    Moving away from DC may not involve shifting all the risk to the individual. Maha Khan Phillips examines some of the other options that pension funds, particularly Dutch ones, are coming up with

  • Looking for more diversification
    Features

    Looking for more diversification

    April 2008 (Magazine)

    The civil servants’ scheme is searching for both an investment consultant and a new CEO to lead a diversification of its investment universe. George Coats reports

  • What to do when the wolf is at the door
    Features

    What to do when the wolf is at the door

    April 2008 (Magazine)

    Next to banks, pension funds are the second largest investor in European private equity. As investors they may be involved, as limited partners, in the leveraged buyouts of companies and their pension schemes - a subject of considerable controversy recently. Pension fund boards therefore face a dilemma: private equity can ...

  • Features

    Fortis Investments looks to fiduciary

    April 2008 (Magazine)

    The fortunes of a CEO can vary with the tides, particularly when it comes to mergers and acquisitions. Sometimes a merger makes their position redundant; other times it can catapult the CEO to the helm of a new entity that has changed beyond recognition. Fortis Investments’ future was ...

  • The sleeping giant  of Valley Forge
    Features

    The sleeping giant of Valley Forge

    April 2008 (Magazine)

    A triumvirate of US asset managers dominate passive investment. Between them, State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), Vanguard and Barclays Global Investors (BGI) manage over $3.5trn (€2.3trn). But while BGI and SSgA have built hedge fund and active management businesses, and have swept up business in European pension markets, Vanguard has ...

  • Features

    How we moved our money

    April 2008 (Magazine)

    Last year, the Dutch pension fund PME mandated Mn Services with the fiduciary management of its assets, and took a stake in the company, in what was the largest ever European portfolio transition. Iain Morse discusses the transition aspects of the deal with Roland van den Brink of Mn Services

  • Refocusing on risk
    Features

    Refocusing on risk

    April 2008 (Magazine)

    After five years of growth the recent market turmoil is leading to a strategic reassessment on the part of asset managers in France. Nina Röhrbein examines the emerging trends

  • Features

    New Jersey buys financials cheaply

    March 2008 (Magazine)

    These days the most talked about pension fund in the US is New Jersey State’s Retirement System. With $81bn (€54.7bn) in assets, it is the ninth largest US public pension fund. It is also the instigator of a highly innovative attempt to team with other large institutional investors, including foreign ...