Asset Allocation – Page 177
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Features
Web-based data service gives members the full picture
In 2004 and 2005, PKA members’ services were developed further by the introduction of a number of extra facilities on the website. The strategy for this development has been based on providing the right information at the relevant times, through the channel preferred by the individual member. Almost 20,000 members ...
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Hidden costs of trading revealed
Most trustees have no problem in seeing why investment performance must be monitored. The success or failure of the entire fund is at stake. But when it comes to putting transaction costs under the microscope, the exercise can sometimes seem too arcane to bother with. Still, many pension funds are ...
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Continuing reform focuses on governance and inclusion
The UK pensions industry needs Barclays. It is a market that is full of doom and gloom. It is only fitting then that Barclays should win the IPE European Country Silver Award 2005. For this is a sterling example of how to move forward. The dynamism, enthusiasm and sheer determination ...
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Coming to terms with derivatives
Remember 1995? Only 10 years ago or so, most investment managers still felt pretty uncomfortable with derivatives. Derivative traders were an exotic species using Greek symbols and a jargon nobody could understand. No surprise, pension funds hardly used these instruments, or even avoided them in principle. What is a derivative? ...
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Streamlined collection system leads where others wait
A reform of the way in which tax and insurance is deducted from employees’ salaries in the Netherlands has prompted the Dutch pension fund Pensioenfonds Horeca & Catering (PH&C) to introduce procedural and technological changes for calculating and collecting employer contributions. This project has earned the fund this year’s themed ...
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Commission clawback
With cost cutting a priority for most pension funds, providers of commission recapture programmes should have no trouble persuading funds to sign up. After all, commission recapture gives investors a systematic way of recouping some of the brokerage commission they pay. But not all pension clients make use of it, ...
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Chasing new rainbows?
In the last two years, investment banks have truly woken up to the fact that there is a vacuum in the investment product range offered to pension funds. Many houses have set up dedicated pensions groups, and all of them are vying for new business. Some are finding it harder ...
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Still waiting for changes
The source of the major challenge for Portuguese pension funds is clear: it’s the state. But not in the way seen elsewhere in Europe, where governments place investment and other restrictions on pension funds. Rather it’s its all-encompassing presence in the pensions arena and the resulting universally held belief this ...
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More challenges to come
If they haven’t already, many pension fund investment managers will shortly be considering how to position their funds to meet the challenges of the new year and it certainly looks as though the new year will produce just as many challenges as this year has. It does not look like ...
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Portfolio managed to meet global challenges
An important component in creating long-term competitive returns for life insurance savers is to set up an efficient portfolio construction process. In particular, effective portfolio management can best equip a fund to meet global challenges such as the EU occupational pensions directive and the new traffic light model being used ...
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Embracing the challenge of a changing pensions system
It will come as no real surprise to see Barclays walk away again with IPE’s Country Award for the United Kingdom. Last year, it won for its innovative ‘afterwork’ concept, a hybrid defined benefit and defined contribution scheme. This year, its success is thanks to its excellent stakeholder engagement policy. ...
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The poisoned chalice?
Germany’s got a new minister responsible for pensions – which is interesting for two reasons. First is the scale of the problem, then there is the minister himself. Out of the turmoil of the election and the horse-trading behind the grand coalition, the SPD’s Franz Muentefering has emerged in the ...
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Confidence and diversity builds portfolio that protects
Given its innovative and efficient approach to building its portfolios, it’s no wonder Inarcassa continues to be one of Italy’s leading pension funds and has won the IPE Award 2005 for portfolio construction. The objective behind the €3bn self-employed engineers’ and architects’ fund is generating maximum returns with minimum risk, ...
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Features
Limits set by risk budget help to boost funding rating
Over the past year, Danish pension fund ATP has amended its approach to liability-driven investments, splitting the investment portfolio into separate alpha, beta, and liability hedge portfolios. This approach has won it the themed award for risk management. Risk management has been a cornerstone in the fund’s investment management for ...
