Asset Allocation – Page 229
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Features
Positive about equity returns
After three consecutive down years in equity markets, Schroders believes 2003 will be a better one for investors, despite current gloom, and we will look to add to our equity holdings as economic indicators improve. We expect gradual economic growth in 2003, although the pace is likely to be modest. ...
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Features
Compare against clients' goals
One good outcome of the stock market plunge of the last few years is that it has exposed ‘relative’ performance as a misleading indicator of financial health. The consultant who says to his client, “good news, your portfolio did better than the market, now please contribute umpty ump million pounds ...
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Features
All together to save the system
“We must save our pay-as-you-go system, and we must save it together,” declared French Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, in a rousing oratory to France’s economic and social council on February 3. The rhetoric will have been lapped up by the 300,000 plus protesters who had just taken to the streets ...
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Uncertainty overhang holds back investors
Since Graham & Dodd published their paper on Securities Analysis in 1934 and T Rowe Price rejoined with a piece in Barron’s on investing for growth later that decade, the two contrasting styles of growth and value have competed for the high ground in US investment. For a European pension ...
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Features
Change on the horizon
In matters of French pensions the adage plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose could often be employed in the past with an accompanying gallic shrug. Today the case is different. While France is not about to give up its beloved répartition (pay-as-you-go) pensions system for all the demographic ...
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Features
Closing the pensions gap
Defined contribution plans have historically played a small part in the Germany’s occupational pension system. So the reform of the system engineered by former labour minister Walter Riester raised hopes among some companies that Germany might see the introduction of a DC plan design along Anglo-Saxon lines – the German ...
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Features
Is Switzerland in crisis?
Switzerland has been teetering on the brink of a so called ‘pensions crisis’ for several months. When the government lowered the minimum guaranteed interest rate paid on occupational pension schemes from 4% to 3.25%, one sensed that all was not well with Switzerland’s second pillar system. With an increasing number ...
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Features
Europe trails in US footsteps
We must all hang together or, most assuredly, we will all hang separately. This is the current message from the Euro-zone equity markets, rattled by fears of a war in Iraq and its consequences for the US economy. The high degree of correlation between the European and US markets means ...
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Features
Where France takes the lead
The reform of the French pension fund market will be good for custodians, says Bernard Blaud, head of sales and relationship management for international investor services, France, at BNP Paribas Securities Services. “Pension funds will require a range of services, including daily net asset value calculations and compliance monitoring.” Bruno ...
