Asset Allocation – Page 181
-
Features
Working compromise
The Finnish government is the envy of its European counterparts when it comes to the pensions issue. Old age pensions have a minimal impact on Finland’s fiscal situation as no public money goes towards them, the budget only being called upon to provide a basic state pension for those with ...
-
Features
More to communication than links
Consensus is growing both within and outside of the pension world that clearness and transparency about complex pension schemes is needed. Yet the quality of communication between funds and participants and pensioners is often criticised. Have pension funds and insurers not yet found the best way to communicate, or is ...
-
Features
Specialist managers come into their own
The rationale for core-satellite investing is becoming more widely accepted - at least in theory - say asset managers, and the approach gives specialist active management a high profile role. Pension funds are increasingly adopting a core-satellite approach to their investment, says John Cleary, chief investment officer at Standard Asset ...
-
Features
The fixed income game changes
As well as making sure the actively managed portions of their equity portfolios are working as hard as possible, institutional investors have also become more focused on how their fixed-income portfolios are managed. “In terms of targeting outperformance, I’ve noticed a real shift in the last few years,” says Paul ...
-
Features
Cautious tack keeps pensions flowing
It is the proud boast of the Sparinstitutens Pensionkassa (SPK), the pension fund for Sweden’s savings banks, that it has never been underfunded since it was created in 1944. The fund, a defined benefit scheme, has ridden out the recent storms in the equity markets, principally because of its conservative ...
-
Features
The case for keeping it simple
Pension funds are doing well in solving disputes with their members, and they are even improving. This is the view of Dutch Pensions Ombudsman Piet Keizer. “There is a clear trend towards better information and dealing with members’ complaints. A growing number of funds have their own complaints’ schemes, which ...
-
Features
Pensionsfonds bright future
Aleading German pensions adviser, Richard Herrmann of consulting firm Heubeck, sees a strong future for German Pensionsfonds. The funds - Germany’s answer to the equity-oriented Anglo-Saxon pension fund - should double their assets every two years now that the government has boosted their competitiveness, he says. In implementing the EU ...
-
Features
Solidarity between generations
Communication between pension funds to their members is the best way of keeping the collective solidarity between the generations in an ageing population. “Communication and information of the pension funds to their members is paramount,” stated social affairs’ minister Aart Jan de Geus speaking at the ABP Rendez-vous. “It ...
-
Features
Don't bank on it
Portugal’s pensions landscape is subject to a two-tier domination by the main banks which provide their clients with a range of financial services, including pension management. According to figures from APFIPP, the Portuguese Association of Investment Funds, Pension Funds and Asset Managers, the Pension Funds market consists of around E14.9bn. ...
-
Features
Return to balanced?
Changing views in the pensions industry on the role of active management within portfolios has led to a rise in new balanced mandates, say consultants. But is it really best to use a single investment house for such a wide variety of different assets? Anthony Ashton, head of global client ...
-
Features
Emerging market debt: a maturing asset class
Investors should consider emerging market debt (EMD) as a key component of a diversified portfolio. Despite various crises during the 1990s, EMD has outperformed versus all other asset classes over the last ten years (see Table 1). And, because the asset class is more closely aligned to other risk assets, ...
-
Features
Smoke alarm at risk
In 1997 Deutsche Bank, the parent of the UK asset manager Morgan Grenfell (now Deutsche Asset Management) paid £220m (e322m) in compensation to clients of funds run by one of Morgan Grenfell’s managers, Peter Young, who had lost money on investments in unlisted companies, The bank was also fined a ...
-
Features
Actuaries' split personalities
Once upon a time, actuaries lived in an ivory tower, where they pored over complicated mathematical valuations…and they invariably came up with incontrovertible, well-founded and faultless opinions. They towered above the parties, influenced by no one, not even by their bosses. From time to time they explained to everyone who ...
-
Features
Active returns dominate
ABP Dutch fund ABP - the largest pension fund in Europe with assets of e180bn - has made sweeping changes in the way it runs its portfolio in the last three years. The portion of its equities that was run on an indexed basis - 45-50% - was reduced ...
