Asset Allocation – Page 177
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Features
Why pension pooling is a reality
As a panelist at a recent IPE conference, I was asked: “For all the talk about cross-border pension pooling, is anyone actually doing it?” A fair question, because so much pooling-related activity in recent years has gone on behind the scenes. The design and implementation of a first generation of ...
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Features
Start of the pooling plunge?
Several years of work have gone into Unilever’s giant asset pooling vehicle. After a long period of decision-making, logistics and negotiation, the €5bn multi-fund vehicle, named Univest, was finally launched at the end of last year. The multinational consumer products group set up Univest to provide a central investment pool ...
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Features
Achievements and challenges
The euro has very rapidly created a zone of monetary stability in Europe. The average inflation rate in the euro area has been a little above 2%. This is somewhat above the level of what the ECB defines as price stability, but a good performance in view of the increases ...
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Features
Asset allocation game
The asset allocation game was chaired by Karel Stroobants of Akkerman Stroobants in Brussels and focused on how the imaginary ‘Easy Going’ pension fund should handle its asset allocation, on which the attendees were invited to vote. Six asset management executives - Darrell Riley of T Rowe Price, Craig Scholl ...
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Features
Allocation gap for alternatives
Ever since Gary Brinson’s 1986 publication of a paper demonstrating that asset allocation is the dominant factor in determining the return of a portfolio, strategic asset allocation has been accepted as important. When it comes, however, to including alternative asset classes in an overall asset allocation framework, the industry is ...
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Features
Positive approach to New Year
IPE asked pension funds in three countries – Germany, Italy and Norway – the same question, ‘What do you hope will happen in 2006, and what do you fear?’ Here are their answers: Dirk Lepelmeier, head of investments at Nordrheinische Ärtzeversorgung (NAEV), which has an AUM of €7.5bn “The ...
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Special Report
Structured approaches
A two-tiered internal governance structure is being proposed in the Netherlands, the country that is leading on governance in Europe, and where the issue has been under debate for the last few years. Currently, according to the OECD, pension funds are incorporated legal entities separate from the sponsor, and have ...
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Features
Time to take back control
The UK local authority pension fund sector1 has changed enormously over the years and today is characterised by increasing oversight, market complexity and externally managed investment strategies. Once renowned for its in-house approach to investing, the sector has long since delegated active control over the investment process to consulting firms, ...
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Special Report
A question of best practice
For trustees and board members of pension funds in Europe, life has never been harder. A decade ago, things looked rosy. Pension funds were in surplus, and funding levels were not a concern. Pension schemes were posting strong double digit returns, allowing contribution holidays, and spending almost next to no ...
