Asset Allocation – Page 195
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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
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
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
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
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
Tying the pieces together
Is asset allocation objective? Why are rational, intelligent individuals able to produce two radically different asset allocations both seeking to fulfil a 20-year objective? The answer lies in the conflicts of interest that are embedded in the institutional fund management industry. The fundamental point is that what the risk stakeholders ...
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Features
Trouble at the top
Last December Ireland’s asset management industry was rocked by the sixth defection from Bank of Ireland Asset Management (BIAM) to Autralian financial services group Perpetual Trustees. BIAM was still reeling from the initial shock of the first four departures in October; now concerns regarding the bank’s ability to maintain its ...
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Features
A1 at Lloyd's
The job of the Lloyd’s Register is to examine merchant ships and classify them according to their condition. The highest classification, ‘A1 at Lloyds’, indicates by the letter A that a ship’s hull is in first class order and by the number 1 that the trappings are also sound; in ...
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Features
Scanning the future at ABP
At ABP Investments - part of ABP, the Dutch civil servants pension fund (e160bn) - a disciplined three-stage approach is being used for scanning the future and interpreting current developments on financial markets. Both strategic and tactical asset allocation, asset/liability management, stress testing and the preparation of investment plans, benefit ...
