Asset Allocation – Page 193
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Features
Taking centre stage in Europe
With the new year, the rewriting of the rules governing the single currency takes centre stage in the pension debate, with a number of member states clamouring that they should be given more time to get their public pension systems in order. Also, the European Parliamentary Pension Forum (EPPF), initially ...
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Features
Finland faces tough choices
The Finnish government has been urged to usher in more politically difficult pension reform measures to make its finances sustainable. The “political arithmetic” suggests there may be dangers in waiting too long, a new report warns. It comes as it appears that the initial response to a new flexible retirement ...
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Features
Extending the golden circle
The pension assets of US multinational Hewlett Packard (HP) – some $5.9bn (e4.6bn) in total (ex-US) at the end of last year – are treated with special care. The backdrop, as can be found elsewhere, is a policy of taking greater control from the centre. The ‘Golden Circle’, the inner ...
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Features
Heading for a crowded retirement
What was your first full-time job – and do you remember what you were paid at the time? My first job, in 1966, after I graduated in law from the University of Copenhagen and completed my military service was in the education ministry working on higher education planning. It was ...
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Features
Custody market on the move
If the past few months are anything to go by, the French securities services market should prove to be one to watch this year. The large domestic players and overseas banks are positioning themselves to take advantage of what they regard as a market of significant potential growth. In December ...
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Features
On fait des progrès
New energy, new sophistication and, not least, new money. France is gradually shedding its image as a land of relatively limited opportunity for institutional asset managers. This gathered pace last year with the issue of mandates worth E16bn by the Fonds de Réserve pour les Retraites (FRR), the first of ...
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Features
Looking at the dynamics
While the message is gradually getting through that tactical asset allocation (TAA) has evolved and improved since the early 1990s, consultants say this new investment method has yet to prove itself in the long term. Andrew Kirton, UK investment consulting practice leader at Mercer says TAA is back on the ...
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Features
A place for equities
IPE asked three pension funds in three countries – the Slovakia, Denmark and Germany – the same question: ‘Equities are still the only asset class that can provide the returns that pension funds need to reduce their deficits – or are they?’ Here are their answers Gabriel Hinzeller is ...
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Features
Generous to a fault
Belgium’s 150 MPs retire on one of the most generous pensions of any parliamentarians in Europe - some 75% of final salary - which compares with around two-thirds of final salary in most other cases. But in terms of the length of time it takes to accumulate a full pension, ...
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Features
Hard going in France
While multi-manager (MM) services have grown dramatically in popularity worldwide, France is one European market where progress has been slow. Foreign entrants to the French MM institutional market have found it particularly hard to make progress, and domestic organisations which set up MM products some years ago have found growth ...
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Features
Mandatory saving not the German way
The government has ruled out the possibility of private saving for retirement in Germany becoming mandatory, saying its pension reforms of 2001 and 2004 should be sufficient. To encourage saving for retirement, the government created Riester Rente in 2001 – second- and third-pillar pensions that qualify for government subsidies. But ...
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Features
Paying for the good life
One of the requirements of membership of the Salvation Army, the quasi-military Christian mission created by William Booth in 1865, is that members abstain from alcohol and avoid tobacco. This has created an unusual situation for the actuaries of the Salvation Army’s UK pension schemes, who have to take account ...
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Features
Greece looks to Ireland for reform model
The Greek government may turn to Ireland for “inspiration” on pension changes, a finance and economy ministry spokeswoman has said. The government is watching the changes launched in the EU member states with similar life expectancy problems for inspiration, the spokeswoman said. For the time being changes to the Greek ...
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Features
Tobback: making his mark
Belgium’s new pensions and environment minister Bruno Tobback has his work cut out. The ever more important and contentious portfolio of pensions offers challenges galore. But to make his mark Tobback must, at the tender age of 35, prove himself against the backdrop of his influential predecessor Frank Vandenbroucke, architect ...
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Features
It's a question of returns
There is some acceptance among pension funds in Europe that tactical asset allocation (TAA) – today’s version of it, at least – can top up their investment returns. But it is only in the Netherlands that TAA is widely used and spoken about. TAA, which can either be done by ...
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Features
Looking for the sweet spot
Sometimes what appears to be a creeping change can turn out to be the forerunner of a seismic shift and that may be the case for what is happening in global bond mandates. Richard Wohanka, CEO of Fortis Investments and with a bond background himself describes the situation: “In the ...
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Features
IAS19 impact on employee benefits disclosure
On 16 December 2004, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) published an amendment to IAS19. All EU-listed companies must comply with IAS19 (as amended) for accounting periods starting on or after 1 January 2005. Other EU companies may be required to adopt IAS19, or may be allowed to continue with ...
