Asset Allocation – Page 250
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Features
PVF Achmea: the background
About 10 years ago PVF operated as a body to run pension schemes. Its services included advice to pension plan sponsors on policy matters, management of funds’ investments, pensions administration, collection of contributions and payment of benefits. It also looked after running early retirement and disability insurance cover. Today PVF ...
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Grasping the retirement age nettle
Many companies and their employees have begun to realise over the last few years that pensions have become increasingly expensive to provide. The answer of most corporate employers has either been to increase contributions and/or to reduce benefits. But there is another solution which really requires action from governments and ...
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Change is in the air
Employee benefits are among the most significant costs to an organisation after salaries. They are also probably the element of the reward programme that differs the most across Europe as differences in legislation, tax, social security and culture have given rise to vastly different benefit environments. However, these diverse environments ...
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Individual investment choice under discussion
Employees of Austrian companies have two routes into defined contribution (DC) schemes: through an insurance contract or through a pensions fund contract. Before the introduction of the Pensionskassen system in 1990, the insurance route was the only one open to an employee. The employer takes out what is effectively a ...
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Employers lead the flight to defined contribution
The move into defined contribution schemes in Austria had been driven almost entirely by the desire of businesses to remove their pension fund liabilities from their balance sheets. Until 1990 all occupational pension schemes in Austria were book reserve schemes. During the 1970s this created the problem of hidden liabilities ...
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How group control helps local plans
Many multinationals have built up pension arrangements that can become complex when they are consolidated at group level. These frequently contain a mixture of defined benefit and defined contribution schemes. They may be invested directly or indirectly – for example, through insurance policies or investment funds – and may have ...
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DC gives more flexibility in Norway
Historically, retirement plans in Norway have been predominantly defined benefit but legislation that came into effect on 1 January 2001 now permits tax qualified defined contribution plans. One of the stated goals for this new law is to encourage pension provision for the 1m or so Norweigan workers without any ...
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GRAM expects markets rebound
The keys to an economic upswing are again households in the US. The question is whether they will increase spending or focus on the rising unemployment and therefore be cautious. Until the market participants become more confident about a recovery, the financial markets could be quite volatile, and we recommend ...
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Funds' fees under scrutiny
The attraction for Belgian institutional investors of investing through funds is understandable. The Belgian market is a small one, and the size of the average pension fund makes investment funds the easiest and quickest way of achieving portfolio diversification. Also there are good fiscal reasons for investors taking this indirect ...
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Looking forward to a last-quarter recovery
Euroland’s equity markets are gearing up for what analysts expect will be an unhindered recovery and sustained period of growth. “Finally things are looking good for investors, especially given the continuous sensitive nature with which investors have been approaching Europe’s markets vis-à-vis risk strategies for the last 18 months or ...
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Time to go stock picking in the US
Equities in the US are ripe for stockpickers, say strategists. The market as a whole is likely to remain flat to firmer in the next few months, but those with an eye for a bargain could be the winners in the current climate, they say. “For now, it’s time to ...
