Asset Allocation – Page 180
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Features
Pensions in a state of insecurity
Norbert Blüm, a former Conservative labour minister, once committed one of Germany’s best-known political gaffes by claiming that the state pension was “secure”. While Blüm had good intentions – meaning to say that payment of some pension was guaranteed – he probably should have realised that his remark would be ...
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Features
Inflation on the prowel
The financial setbacks of recent years have left many pension funds in a difficult position. With their concentration in equities, portfolios were damaged by the collapse of the technology bubble, while the simultaneous fall in bond yields raised pension liabilities. Additionally, government reviews and legislative changes have all placed pension ...
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Features
How secure is your lending?
IPE asked three pension funds in three countries – Ireland, Denmark and the Netherlands – the same question: ‘Does securities lending represent free revenue for pension funds or does it carry underestimated risks?’ Here are their answers: Michael Nellemann Perdersen, CIO at PKA, which groups eight pension funds in ...
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Features
Where the grass is greener?
There seem to be two Irelands when it comes to pensions. The first is the dynamic financial centre that is looking to become a pensions hub for Europe once the occupational pension fund directive kicks in. The second by contrast is a country that is wrestling with its very own ...
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Features
Funds in profile
DSM Pension Services Ewout Gillissen, senior investment manager The stock market success of speciality chemicals company DSM, the former petrochemical giant, is being mirrored by the financial success of its pension funds. After the divestment of the petrochemical segment to Saudi Arabia’s SABIC, the in-house pension management supplier DSM Pensions ...
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Features
A fork in the road
Some have argued that compulsion is the only way to close the so-called ‘savings gap’ the shortfall between the amount people will need in their retirement and the amount that the state will provide. They say the introduction of compulsory pension contributions is the only way forward, since encouragement to ...
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Features
Reforms eluding Mañana market
Since joining the EU the Spanish economy has become one of the most dynamic in Europe. But as business flourishes in what was once a rather sleepy – not to mention sickly – backwater, old habits – and clichés – die hard as growth of the second pillar pensions system ...
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Features
Looking for the special effect
The development of the Euro-zone has led to the development of investment approaches that take a truly pan-European approach, ignoring country weightings in the search for the best opportunities in each sector. Small companies, however, are still more domestically focused and their behaviour tied more to the local index and ...
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Features
Earmarked for early retirement
The new Dutch ‘levensloop’, the new life course, scheme - designed to encourage later retirement - will probably have to be adjusted within five years. Too many workers want to use it for early retirement, instead of a sabbatical or care leave. Benne van Popta, chairman of the Association of ...
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Features
A new practical instrument for duration management
Over the last two years an enormous amount of papers, articles and views have been produced, ever since the plans for the new Dutch financial risk framework (nFTK) for pension funds were revealed. They have focussed on every imaginable aspect of the proposed new framework, from asset and liability management, ...
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Features
Don't write Germany off
Speaking in Brussels in June, former German junior finance minister and World Bank managing director Caio Koch-Weser, admitted that the dream of bringing the financial centre of Europe to the economic centre was still just that. “Germany as a financial services location ‘Finanzstandort Deutschland’ is…still a long way from having ...
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Features
Delaying the inevitable?
Under the current actuarial rulings (APP), pension funds are allowed to use interest rates up to a maximum of 4% to discount liability streams. This has to be done in a prudent fashion. Specifically the words ‘maximum’ and ‘prudent’ seem to be ignored quite regularly, as it is almost a ...
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Features
When markets turn from crisis
On 23 December 2001, the Argentinean government stopped servicing its debt. It was not the first time Argentina has defaulted – there have been four other occasions since the 1820s. It certainly was not the first default among emerging market sovereigns – Mexico, Pakistan, Ukraine, Ecuador, Russia and Indonesia have ...
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Features
More than just cosmetic
The main focus of those responsible for pensions of Bayer’s 93,000 employees worldwide has been the move from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC). “This year we have concluded the process with the completion of the move of our US employees to the DC system,” says Lutz Cardinal von ...
