Asset Allocation – Page 185
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Special Report
Missing the ESG sea-change
Fiduciary responsibility has been reinvented to include environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations – this was the clear message to pension funds and their trustees, as well as the consultants and asset managers who work with them that emerged from the 2005 United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) ...
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Features
Fishing in a lively pond
For Freud it was ‘id’. For investors, should it be ‘mid’? Yes. Mid caps are under-researched and under-owned, which makes them fertile ground for stockpickers. The availability of information in this area of the market is poor. So there is good potential to benefit from identifying positive change in companies ...
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Features
Pyramid structure provides solid foundations
Two special characteristics led to Germany’s Nordrheinische Aertzeversorgung (NAEV), the North Rhine Doctors’ Pension Scheme, entering and winning IPE’s coveted themed award for property investments: the restructuring of its real estate portfolio and its risk-adjusted asset allocation strategy. Founded in 1959 in the densely populated and highly industrialised state of ...
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Features
Pension funds still wary
On the surface of things, investment banks, particularly those with dedicated pension fund advisory groups, are making strong gains into the pension fund market. A report by Greenwich Associates, the US research consultancy, revealed that one third of UK pension funds are considering liability driven investments in their funding policies. ...
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Features
Innovation gets results
PME Bedrijfstakpensioenfonds Metalektro (PME), which has assets under management of €18bn, attributes its success to a number of clear-cut principles that underpin the organisation and govern the way in which the pension scheme operates. PME has a strong executive board that is responsible for determining basic policy. The task of ...
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Features
Getting results from promoting greener way of investing
Socially responsible investing (SRI) has for some time been in fashion among institutional investors. Yet it is an approach that is easier to talk about than put into practice. This year’s SRI winner – the Environment Agency Active Fund – has, however, managed to translate the rhetoric into action. The ...
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Features
Satisfied by sexy industry
Han Thoman recently retired as managing director of Blue Sky Group, which manages the pension assets of airline KLM and several other clients. He also stepped down as chairman of OPF, the Dutch organisation for company pension funds. He joined Blue Sky in 1999 as it was spun off from ...
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Features
Outstanding performance from innovative newcomer
The Gildi Pension Fund is a new name in Icelandic pensions, but it has now won the country award in the first year of its existence. The fund was established on 1 January 2005, from the merger of two pension funds, the Framsyn Pension Fund and the Seamen’s Pension Fund. ...
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Features
Keyed into technology
Although pension regimes can differ significantly from country across Europe, pension funds share a belief that technology is critical to successfully meeting the challenges that face them today. A common theme across the region is change – new regulations, new behaviour in markets where assets are invested, new competition, and ...
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Features
Northern lights
Norway’s long-awaited pension reform allowing defined contribution (DC) schemes will come into effect next year. Among the main provisions is that all employers with two or more employees will have to provide some type of pension plan for their staff. This will bring 600,000 new pension savers onto the market. ...
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Features
Markets on the move
Swedish pension funds are in a state of culture shock as they get to grips with two new major pieces of legislation. All will have to raise their game as the occupational pensions directive opens up a veritable smorgasbord of investment choice but in return demands prudence. Meanwhile, the authorities ...
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Features
The new quasi-consultants
The specialist pensions groups at the investment banks have a lot to offer trustees. They can be a valuable source of expertise particularly when it comes to using complex financial instruments to solve the liability mismatches plaguing many funds. But just whose side are they on, and is their advice ...
