Asset Allocation – Page 235
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Features
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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Features
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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Features
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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Features
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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Features
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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Features
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 ...
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Building up extra pension
The big Dutch pension schemes have come under increasing member and political pressure to offer more individually tailored pension plans offering greater choice and flexibility than the uniform approach demanded by the defined benefit structures. One response was to set up an insurance subsidiary to be able to provide individual ...
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Features
Market deep in change
The current downturn in markets has presented Irish pension funds with what Nora Finn, chief executive of the Irish Association of Pension Funds (IAPF) calls the new ‘realism’. Parodying the new ‘investment paradigm’ phrase that was banded about liberally just a few years ago, Finn says the new realism means ...
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Features
Croatia's model system
After a year of operations, Croatia’s compulsory pension system has been judged a success. As of the end of 2002 the seven compulsory pension funds accumulated 938,310 members and net assets of HRK2.04bn (E285m). More than that, virtually all contributions are in the correct place and most of the future ...
