All Diary of An Investor articles – Page 2
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Features
Diary of an Investor: Muddy boots on
We pension funds at least have the luxury of not being stuck behind our screens all the time, trading or monitoring our portfolio
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Features
Diary of an Investor: Can you see the bigger picture?
There are some things we in the investment office of Wasserdicht Pension Funds don’t want to get involved in and one of them is internal group politics. For that we have our trustee board, which is responsible for making the decisions in any case, and our formidable chairman of trustees, Rolf.
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Features
Diary of an Investor: In the wrong clothes
It has not been a great start to the year at Wasserdicht’s Dutch pension fund. Volatile markets have been worrying our trustees and our coverage ratio has dropped, just like at most Dutch pension funds.
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Features
Diary of an Investor: Greenstreaming, anyone?
Everyone seems to have an opinion about carbon these days, which probably has something to do with the COP21 climate change talks in Paris at the end of last year
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Features
Diary of an Investor: A different world
Last month I was over in London for a short business trip to visit some credit managers. Before I headed back to the airport I meet up with Thijs, a good friend of mine. Thijs recently moved from his role as CIO of one of the large industry funds in the Netherlands to a big corporate pension fund in the UK.
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Features
Diary of an Investor: Independent spirit
My friends at BIG Asset Management are here for one of their regular client visits. At Wasserdicht we don’t do lunches and the format is the traditional Dutch one, with rolls and buttermilk.
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Features
Diary of an Investor: Ten years on
This month I celebrate 10 years as investment director of the Wasserdicht pension funds and it is heartening to receive warm congratulations from so many friends in the Netherlands and abroad.
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Features
Diary of an Investor: Patience is a virtue
Once our half-yearly reports are out of the way, the summer months are usually a good opportunity to look through our portfolio holdings and to read up on the trends and forecasts that some of the industry’s foremost commentators are making
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Features
Diary of an Investor: How much?
I know that almost everyone thinks they are underpaid. Unfortunately, that group of people includes some members of our team
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Features
Diary of an investor: Smart thinking
Last month I spoke to Katrine, who has taken over as CIO at Pension København, to discuss the co-operation agreement we signed a couple of years ago. When we finished talking about wind farms we discussed risk-and-return sources. Like some of the large Danish pension funds, PensionKøbenhavn has done a lot of work on this subject.
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Features
Diary of an Investor: Technological hurdles
Geert, our head of investment research, comes in to the office one April morning with a new gadget. ‘This is the future,’ he announces, showing off a new smart watch
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Features
Diary of an Investor: The conference calls
Unlike my friend Eddie, I am not a devotee of the conference scene but I do enjoy a good debate, writes Pieter Mullen
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Features
Diary of an Investor: No magic bullet
The good 2014 return of Wasserdicht’s Dutch fund was less down to asset allocation and mostly driven by high hedge ratios, writes investment director Pieter Mullen
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Features
Diary of an Investor: When bigger isn’t better
These days, we at Wasserdicht Pension Funds are something of a rarity as the asset management bureau of a standalone company pension fund. Many of our brethren in the Netherlands have merged with a larger industry scheme or outsourced their investments to a fiduciary manager.
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Features
Diary of an Investor Praise indeed
My wife Jeanette is from France and it has been a great pleasure over the years to discover that country through her eyes and to get to know her family. This year, at the start of the autumn holidays, we drive down to Lyon with the children to stay with Jeanette’s sister Marie and her husband Jean-Baptiste.
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Features
Diary of an Investor: Generation games
Now that my children are getting older they ask me more about what I do for a living and the questions are getting a bit more demanding. My eldest, especially, is at an age when questions come thick and fast.
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Features
Diary of an Investor: A happy median
A couple of weeks ago, my old friend Pim came over to the Wasserdicht offices in Utrecht to tell me about his new proposition. I’ve known Pim for many years and he has pitched to me many times, although each pitch has been from a different company.
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Features
Time for a debate
This autumn our government is orchestrating what it calls a ‘national debate’ on the future of our Dutch pension system. We at Wasserdicht Nederland have always taken a prudent approach to our pension schemes and we have remained well funded. Unlike many other Dutch funds, we have not had to implement benefits cuts – something I hope our members appreciate.
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Features
Time for a change
Earlier this year, the investment team had a briefing from Rolf, the long-standing chairman of trustees of the Wasserdicht Pension Funds here in the Netherlands. Things are changing, at least in terms of our internal governance, and Rolf came along to tell us about it.
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Features
Look to the north
In the Netherlands we are sensitive to environmental problems and are aware of our vulnerability as a low-lying nation to rising sea level. After all, you have to if a fifth of your land and a fifth of your people are below sea level.
