Asset Allocation – Page 192
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Features
A schizophrenic market
Perhaps one of the striking aspects of investing in European equities five years after the introduction of the euro, is the continued ambiguity of what a European mandate should represent. It is rather as if when considering an American mandate, the choice included mandates for the US excluding Texas as ...
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Features
Is mandatory outsourcing welcome?
The Minister of Social Affairs and Employment in the Netherlands is investigating whether Dutch pension funds should change the way in which they implement pension schemes. This is to take account of possible developments in European competition law. The minister is considering requiring pension funds to split the pension fund ...
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Features
Middle manager views
At end-March 2004 Dutch pension fund had total assets of e480bn, according to the latest Bureau Bosch report on Trends of the Dutch Investment Management Market*. And some e316bn of Dutch institutional assets were managed externally, up from e296.6bn a year earlier. At the top of the rankings the report ...
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Features
The greatest of these is MBS
“US mortgage-backed securities have the highest Sharpe ratios of all US asset classes, stock or bond. Bonds in general have a higher Sharpe ratio than stocks going back ten years. But even among bonds mortgage-backed securities have had the highest Sharpe ratios.This fact surprises many people. “Conventional wisdom states that ...
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Features
Tsunami support fund launched
Pension funds are founded for one sole purpose – to make sure workers get a decent pension when they retire. So it came as a bit of a surprise when two of Europe’s biggest pension funds, ABP and PGGM, announced they were setting up a support fund for the elderly ...
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Features
Duration extension - to do or not to do?
The Dutch pension-funds regulator has issued a new consultation document in October 2004. This contains provisions which will form the basis of financial regulation from 2006, when the new Dutch Pensions Act comes into force. The new regulatory framework (Financieel Toetsingskader, or FTK in Dutch) will consist of a solvency ...
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Features
Working until you drop
The touchy subject of retirement age. Should people be compelled to retire at a certain age, and what age should that be? Many European states and employers impose official or mandatory retirement ages at which employees are expected to retire. However, these age limits were set at times when life ...
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Features
Prepensions refuse to lie down
The trade unions, in particular FNV and CNV, in cooperation with the employer’s organisations, such as the VNO-NCW and MKB, have stopped the current Dutch liberal-Christian Democrat government from totally overhauling the pension sector. Nonetheless, further changes are due to come in the coming months. The Museumplein-agreement between social partners ...
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Features
Smoothing over the differences
Since the beginning of this year all companies listed on stock exchanges within the EU have been required to prepare their consolidated financial statements in accordance with the new International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Companies listed on exchanges outside the EU have a further year before the requirement applies to ...
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Features
Managing in a cold climate
For Theo Jeurissen, investment manager of the e22bn Pensioenfonds Metaal en Techniek (the Dutch metalworking and mechanical engineering sector pension fund), the two newest issues are: how to deal with the rule changes requiring pension fund valuations to use market rates when valuing a portfolio rather than a fixed 4% ...
