Asset Allocation – Page 272
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Features
Unaware of funds' hidden costs
Mutual funds investments is widespread among Belgian pension funds. Small pension funds believe that mutual funds meets their specific requirements better, at a law cost and with fiscal advantages. “Today it is quite is quite typical to hear pension funds sponsors saying they don’t pay any management fees because they ...
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Features
Slowdown fears unnerve Europeans
It’s nervy times as markets get through the first quater of 2001. “People are unsure about earnings and are therefore holding on to stocks with proven profitability and defensive characteristics,” says Neill Brennan, head of quantitative research at Schroder Salomon Smith Barney in London. “Market nervousness has seen defensives bounce ...
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Features
Myners gets UK pensions industry talking
The name of Paul Myners has been on the lips of pensions professionals in the UK for some months now, and all the more so in the last few weeks since his review of institutional investment practice finally saw the light of day. When Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown ...
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Features
Giant step into a new world
Last year, PGGM, the Netherlands’ second largest pension fund, took the revolutionary decision to invest in the commodities markets with a commitment of between 3% and 5% of its total portfolio value of about e50bn. This was no sudden move, but came after an extensive asset and liability management (ALM) ...
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Features
Teachers' pet
The dual investment management strategy, a low-cost philosophy, devotion to customers’ needs: these are the three pillars of TIAA-CREF (Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund), the premier pension system for people in education and research. As of June 2000 (according to the semiannual report), TIAA-CREF had $298.9bn (e320bn) ...
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Features
PPSEVs replace l’Epargne Retraite
Last August, the French government approved proposals to introduce a law allowing employees to subscribe to new voluntary tax-favoured savings plans to be known as ‘plans partenariaux d’épargne salariale’ (PPESVs). Contributions will be made by both employers and employees and the plans will have a duration of 10 years, at ...
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Features
Increasing role ahead for outside pension director
The role of professional pension scheme directors is likely to increase in future. There are four main reasons for believing this: q Changing regulation of pension funds Regulation of pension funds has become more onerous for pension fund directors over time almost everywhere. They find themselves with more work and ...
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Features
Asset allocation on a global scale
A growing number of multinational head offices are seeking to exercise some influence on the way their subsidiaries’ pension assets are allocated among broad classes. Indeed, a recent Towers Perrin survey of leading multinationals shows that the area in which head offices exert the most influence is with respect to ...
