Asset Allocation – Page 258
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Features
Puzzling over the data
There’s still caution in the markets, despite positive economic data being circulated at the moment. “We’re basically waiting to see what direction this year is going to take,” says Catherine Reilly, an economist at Conventum Securities in Helsinki. She says that whilst she believes the markets have bottomed out, investors ...
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Features
DB to DC in record time
The Polish pension reforms of 1999 rank as one of the fastest implementations of a switch from defined benefit to defined contributions schemes. Marek Gora, professor at the Warsaw School of Economics and co-designer of the programme, started work on the scheme in late 1996, producing the blueprint in early ...
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Features
Styles debate is now over
Even as the academic debate mumbles forward and current research diligently examines how styles might best be theoretically defined and where, and how, they might be relevant, recent equity returns and vivid investor experiences have already spoken very clearly. From 1997 to 2000, value underperformed and growth companies soared. Also, ...
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Features
Funds seek fewer investment limits
Like many other Polish financial reforms, the private pensions system was designed to boost the local capital markets. OFEs operate under a range of investment caps – except in the case of state treasuries where investment is unlimited – including a 40% limit on publicly traded Polish equities, 10% in ...
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Features
Laying the foundations
At the end of last year, an era in Austria pensions came to end, as Helmut Kapl retired as head of the APK-Pensionskasse group he had done so much to build up. But, he is not going quietly into the twilight of retirement. He has a number of irons in ...
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Features
UK pension funds report second year of negative returns
UK pension funds reported the worst returns last year for more than a decade, according to performance measurement consultants WM Company. WM says it is the second consecutive year of negative returns, the first time this has happened since it began its UK pension fund survey in the mid 1970s. ...
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Features
Taking a long and hard look
Despite a tough year marked by investment underperformance, it wasn’t all bad news in the development of the Irish pensions industry during 2001. First there was the announcement of the tendering process for the C7bn National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF) and, a few weeks later the publication of the Pensions ...
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Features
Isle of Man's international package
On 1 January the Isle of Man took an important step towards becoming a key jurisdiction for international pension schemes. The Retirement Benefits Schemes (International Schemes) Regulations 2001 came into effect, creating a framework that enables IoM government- approved international retirement benefits schemes, catering for non-resident members or individuals, to ...
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Features
What next for investment?
Despite declines in the markets, equity investments were here to stay and investors should focus on the long term and stick to their strategic asset allocation. This was the message from panel members discussing their first topic of the session, namely, the future of the equity culture and focussing on ...
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Features
Opening up third pillar market
The long awaited Irish Pension Bill was finally published in July last year, providing for the introduction of Personal Retirement Savings Accounts (PRSAs). This new step was welcome by the industry as a good means of promoting the further development of the Irish market for retirement. There had been criticism, ...
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Features
Wait for rout to be over
Plagued by serious structural problems, Japan is still a market for only the bravest of investors. Things can’t get much worse, strategists say. But is this necessarily an argument that improvement is on the horizon? Among the optimistic voices, Mike Collins, chief strategist with Pictet Asset Management in London, says ...
