Asset Allocation – Page 230
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Features
GIPS - going for gold
In April 1999 the US Association for Investment Management and Research (AIMR) sponsored and published the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS®) Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS) to meet the needs of the globalised investment management industry. As financial markets and investment management firms become increasingly global in nature, the variety ...
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'Nothing sacred' in reform
Japan appears to be in a vicious circle right now, with low interest rates, a banking industry burdened by bad loans and moribund financial markets all weighing on the world’s second largest economy. And that’s not to mention a rapidly ageing population. To try to dig its way out of ...
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We have the technology
With the current move from equity to fixed interest sectors, the ability to perform comprehensive risk management on portfolios of fixed interest instruments is now more important than ever before. A major component of this is the ability to perform fixed interest attribution, or to isolate the effects of various ...
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In the twlilight zone
Financial markets are searching for the global economic rebound. Any encouraging signs are greeted with recovery trades in equity and bond markets. However, these trades are just as quickly unwound when the economic news becomes more sombre. Chances are that an erratic global economy will continue to feed market volatility. ...
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Legal changes ahead
The compulsory pensions system, which started collections at the beginning of 2002, is open to workers up to 50 years and compulsory for those aged 40 and under. It is funded by 19.5% contribution of gross wages, of which a 5% portion is diverted into the compulsory second-pillar. There are ...
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Getronics aims for DB style outcome
Getronics, an international IT company with its headquarters in Amsterdam, is one of a only a handful of companies in the Netherlands that has moved wholly from a defined benefit (DB) to a defined contribution (DC) system for its corporate pension plan. A new economy business with a young, well ...
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Banking on the assets
Leif Hasager is an academic who has found his part time involvement with running the investments of one of Denmark’s oldest pension funds has become a full time occupation. “Now I handle everything in connection with the investment portfolio of Bank Pension, but any decision is taken by the fund’s ...
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Modified cash balance
B y mid-March 2003 a huge battle can burst out in the American workplace, involving up to 42m employees, who are still enrolled in traditional defined benefit (DB) pension plans. At stake is the conversion of these plans into the so-called ‘cash balance’ retirement schemes, which was halted in September ...
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As rare as black tulips
Pure-bred defined contribution (DC) corporate pension schemes managed by pension funds remain as rare as black tulips in the Netherlands. Most DC schemes have been grafted on to defined benefit (DB) schemes to create a Dutch speciality – DC hybrids. For cultural and historical reasons DB schemes have flourished as ...
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Pension booster
The PRSA (Personal Retirement Savings Account) is a new portable pension fund, akin to the UK stakeholder plan, through which the Irish government is seeking to boost pension provision amongst the Irish population from the current levels of around 50% up to 70%. Both employers and employees can contribute to ...
