Asset Allocation – Page 212
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Features
Is the run over?
Although some recent reports suggest demand for emerging debt is set to weaken, the popularity of this asset class doesn’t appear to be subsiding. According to April’s report by the International Monetary Fund, rising US interest rates and a falling US dollar threaten to end two years of growth in ...
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Features
Pay-back time in Tokyo
For many, Japan was the surprise performer of the last 12 months, with a return of 49.6% over the fiscal year to March 2004. Most fund managers in the region anticipate strong earnings in the current year, driven by corporate structural reforms and a global and domestic cyclical recovery. Japan ...
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Features
Getting the best from actuaries
For many pension plans, the actuary is a sort of shaman, a person with supra-human abilities in foreseeing the future of assets and liabilities, and special powers to control the solvency level of the pension fund. However, the belief in actuarial shamanism has recently been fading somewhat. Many things have ...
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Features
Market advances to continue
Equity and bond markets made further progress during February, as investors reflected upon an economic background that continues to provide a sufficiently mixed picture to enable both asset classes to prosper. Emerging markets, particularly in Asia and Eastern Europe once again showed some of the best returns in $ terms, ...
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Features
Closed fund with open agenda
The story of the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme (BCSSS) is part of the story of the UK’s nationalised coal mining. The fund was created in 1947 as the industry came into public ownership to look after the staff including senior underground personnel, and became a closed fund in 1994, ...
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Features
The Anglo-Saxon lesson
I was fascinated by reports of one of the more provocative talks given over the last few weeks was from a former chairman of the UK’s National Association of Pension Funds. Alan Pickering’s speech concerned the future of UK trustees. Given at a European Bond Conference in early April, Pickering, ...
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Features
Bewag believes in 'safety first'
The Berlin-based Bewag Pensionskasse feels that its policy of extreme prudence over the past three years has paid off. Risk is almost a dirty word, as management – and doubtless the members too – content themselves with the chosen ‘safety first policy. The fund, Bewag Pensionskasse, which was Germany’s twelfth-largest ...
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Features
Counting their blessings
The appetite of the Belgian dentist, Belgium’s archetypal retail investor, for capital guaranteed and minimum return products is legendary. To satisfy this investor, investment products must provide protection from downside risk. Now the country’s institutional investors are developing the same sort of appetite. Part of the reason for this is ...
