Asset Allocation – Page 248
-
Features
Need to tap into wider information
A once-in-a-lifetime change has taken place in the behaviour of share prices since late 1998. Individual share price volatility has risen to levels markedly higher than at any previous time bar a brief period in the mid-1970s. This change has had a direct impact on portfolio risk levels – nearly ...
-
Features
Integrale's long track record
Belgium has a long tradition of pension provision that has undergone many reforms through the years. Some players have been present in this market since its very early days, adapting themselves to the different social environments. Liège-based Integrale is one of them. Decades ago the way the Belgian state managed ...
-
Features
Italian moves stalled
The pensions reform package to the closed pensions market in Italy has run into trouble and is unlikely to be passed, warns Roberto Casanova at Milan-based financial consultants IAMA Consulting. Were the package passed, IAMA predicts assets under management in the closed pension fund industry will grow from E3.6bn to ...
-
Features
'Jigsaw pieces in place'
If the European Court of Justice follows the opinion of the advocate general in the Danner v Finland case on pensions taxation, this would be the first attempt made to abolish all obstacle relating to pensions tax issues. This view was expressed by Leonardo Sforza of consultants Hewitt Associates at ...
-
Features
Sobering long-term view
The ‘Golden 90s’ for equities are definitely over. In the mean time, most investors have recognised that the sooner we put the past decade behind us, the better off we will be at the end of the next decade. Equity markets across Europe have fallen sharply over the past two ...
-
Features
Making pensions popular
Simplification was the topic firmly on the agenda at the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) annual conference in Brighton. “The pendulum has swung too far in favour of regulation and complexity”, Alistair Darling, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions told the conference. Hardly a day goes by without ...
-
Features
Market stuck in a rut
Hopes for a significant recovery in the UK equity markets this year have all but disappeared. Investor responses to negative news in the telecommunications sector have been surprisingly bearish, say strategists. If this attitude persists, market levels are bound to stay depressed, they say. Shares of companies in old economy ...
-
Features
Taking the slow road to reform
The development of the Italian pension fund industry has slowed down. Political discussions regarding the reform of the system, changes in the labour market and the never-ending negotiations about the transfer of the TFR into pensions, have increased uncertainty about the future growth of the industry. According to a recent ...
-
Features
‘Untouchable’
The National Pensions Reserve Fund in Ireland was purposely structured to enable it to match the returns achieved by private pension funds, the fund’s main architect, finance minister Charlie McCreevy told the recent UK and Irish Pensions & Investment Summit in Dublin. “The fund’s investment strategy and management was conducted ...
-
Features
Drive to increase pensions coverage
If anyone should be purring, it is Anne Maher, of the Pensions Board in Ireland, where she is chief executive. Last month, the new Pensions Act passed through both houses of parliament and was signed by president McAleese. This was the culmination of five years of work for the Pensions ...
-
Features
Social security creates space for DC plans
Portugal’s new centre-right government, which came to power in March, could provide a spur to the development of private pensions in general and defined contribution (DC) plans in particular. This appears to be the consensus of the country’s pensions industry. Publicly, the view is that nobody knows what the new ...
