Asset Allocation – Page 172
-
Features
Going for full disclosure
IPE asked three pension funds in three countries – in Austria, Estonia and Portugal – the same question: ‘What factors do you have to disclose?’ Here are their answers: Robert Kitt is fund manager at Estonia’s Hansa Investment Funds which has second pillar AUM of €155m and third ...
-
Features
The 'generation pact' policy
Considering the expected demographic developments in Belgium, the level of employment in is too low, as a result of which the social security scheme being based on repartition (active people finance the social security system on behalf of inactive people) will come under pressure. In order to safeguard the Belgian ...
-
Features
Going their own way
While governments across Europe are pulling out all the stops to ensure working people are making enough provision for retirement, the dominant forms of non-state pension schemes vary from country to country. Besides corporate schemes and industry-wide schemes, professional schemes perform a vital role on the pensions stage, even though ...
-
Features
A guarantee of limitations
Last month one of the most famous monuments in Belgium and star of the 1958 World Expo - the Atomium - re-opened after more than a year of renovation work. Newly gleaming in the crisp winter sunshine, this remarkable structure of giant interconnected mirrored spheres presents an enduring – though ...
-
Features
Schemes warned of 'herd mentality'
European pension funds have been warned about a possible “herd mentality” developing in hedge funds. “There appear to be a lot of pension funds in Europe going into hedge funds because everybody else is,” said Penny Green, chief executive of the Superannuation Arrangements of the University of London. She told ...
-
Features
Plague of history
Last year the outlook for Austria’s pension schemes, the Pensionskassen, was not very promising. “The Pensionskassen started in 1990 as a way to enable companies to shift the risk of corporate pension funds from their balance sheets,” recalls Kurt Bednar of Mercer in Vienna. “They gained in popularity as equities ...
-
Features
New ways of looking at risk
John Maynard Keynes wrote in 1924 that, “in the long run, we are all dead”. Existential concerns of a rather more pressing nature afflict pension funds in the Europe and the US as they wrestle with a combined shortfall of more than $600bn (€504bn). The ‘perfect storm’ of falling equity ...
-
Features
Making virtue of necessity
After the Second World War, Belgium developed a broad social security system that differentiated between different kinds of profession. Different schemes were set up for employees, the self-employed and civil servants. The decree of 28 December 1944 provided the populace with legally regulated and guaranteed protection, funded by contributions from ...
-
Features
In praise of risk
“I love risk. I like it because it produces returns for me”, said ABP chief investment officer Roderick Munsters at the 5th annual Institutional Fund Management conference in Geneva. Munsters was one of several industry heavyweights expressing views on the current and potential future challenges facing the pension fund, investment ...
-
Features
Revolution for self-employed
In common with many European countries, Belgium’s public pension schemes are PAYG; also in common with other European countries, future demographic projections show clearly that these schemes will come under huge financial pressures. A recent report of the OECD hghlighted the effects of longevity as the major challenge for Belgium’s ...
-
Features
Unilever sets up €5bn asset pooling
Consumer products group Unilever has set up a pension asset pooling vehicle called Univest which could grow to around €3-5bn in size. The firm said Univest was expected to reduce risk and enhance net return potential. It would provide a “diversified external manager” facility for Unilever schemes worldwide. Unilever’s Dutch ...
-
Features
Making AA more dynamic
Trustees are familiar with the world of triennial actuarial valuations, and the accompanying review of contribution rates and investment strategy. Typically, time would be allocated to consider the investment strategy (strategic asset allocation, or policy portfolio) in order to ‘get it right’. It would then be fixed for three years, ...
-
Features
Germany's Aba warns of DC risks
Germany’s occupational pensions association Aba has come out against the proliferation of defined contribution plans in Germany, arguing that DC creates new risks for employers and is ineffective. Although German occupational pension schemes have traditionally been defined benefit in nature, many companies are switching to DC. Prominent examples include steel ...
-
Features
Directive's impact across board
The objective of the IORPs Directive, otherwise known as the ‘pensions directive’ is to set a common minimum standard of pension scheme governance across EU member states. The directive applies to funded arrangements which provide retirement benefits and are separate legal entities to their sponsoring employers, that is, it applies ...
