All Features articles – Page 109
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Features
One step forward, two steps back
Given the problems in Europe, distressed debt would appear to be all the rage, writes Joel Kranc. But waiting out events might prove to be even more lucrative
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Features
Back to the real economy
Government and bank debt is the problem, not the solution, writes Christine Johnson. If you want safety, follow the money – to large corporates
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Stay on top of benefits
Gail Moss reports on best practice to ensure pensioners receive the right benefit at the right time
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Features
Change without regret
Liam Kennedy spoke with Angelien Kemna, chief investment officer of APG, the Netherlands’ largest pension asset manager with AUM of €278bn, about her policies of ‘minimum regret’ and ‘controlled simplification’
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Features
Changed landscape
Iain Morse outlines the effect impending regulations will have on the custody industry and defined benefit pension funds
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Features
Diary of an Investor: To be charitable
It is a windy morning at the end of January and I am driving to a conference in Amsterdam.
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Features
Consultants could improve
Almost half of the respondents to this month’s Off The Record survey used investment consultants on a retainer basis, although just slightly fewer used them on an occasional or project basis. Only two respondents never use consultants.
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Features
A different world
Now we have reached the ripe old age of 15, IPE has achieved a fairly good perspective on things. Back in February 1997 when we published our first issue, e-mail was a novelty and hand-held computing devices were a twinkle in someone’s eye.
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The real safe haven?
High yield is priced so keenly it would take a euro-zone break-up to really threaten investors, finds Anthony Harrington
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Features
Pensions with independence
Canadian pension funds underwent a transformation in the 1990s, writes Joel Kranc. Greater independence has bred a private investment-style mantra that is envied around the world
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Features
‘Keep it simple’
To mark our fifteenth anniversary, we asked 15 European pension funds about the past, present and future of pensions. Although eight respondents to this month’s Off The Record survey felt the trend would abate, all believed that increases in pension members’ longevity would continue in the 2010s and 2020s. Only two felt their fund was badly prepared to deal with this. A Dutch fund commented: “We already calculate a future increasing life expectancy, and I think it will be less than our calculations.”
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Features
Pawns in need of a knight
Eastman Kodak retirees, both present and future, would appear to be in need of a hero. They will be wringing their hands over the news that the company filed for bankruptcy protection in late January. Those based in the UK, however, are likely to be a bit more concerned about their retirement, and with good reason.
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Features
Leader of the supertanker
ABP transformed itself in 2008 when it spun off APG to become an independent pension asset manager that could also manage assets for external pension funds.
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Features
Strategy and tactics
The annual strategy meeting of the Wasserdicht pension funds is always an interesting affair. We are meeting at a nice hotel in the area of Frankfurt, with a decent golf course. Helmut from our German Pensionskasse is our host and the chairman of the meeting.
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Features
Austria can learn from Denmark
Birgit Vogt-Majarek, Dr Natalie Seitz and Jakob Arffmann explain how Austria’s pension system might benefit from the experiences of Denmark in promoting greater participation of the over-50s in the labour market
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Features
Fears about Solvency II
Pension funds are broadly against Solvency II. Yet the EC is still assessing whether parts of it might apply to pension funds through a new IORP Directive, writes Nina Röhrbein
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Features
Solvency II again raises hackles in Frankfurt
The sixth European Federation for Retirement Provision (EFRP) conference as well as the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) conference were held in Frankfurt at the end of November and were a one-off for at least two reasons.
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Features
Infrastructure for all – but not with state aid
The UK chancellor, George Osborne, last year announced plans to attract £20bn (€23bn) of pension fund assets into infrastructure projects, backed by the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) and the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).
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Features
Alternative to euro-zone survival far worse
The euro-zone will survive, if only because the alternative to the current market turbulence would be worse, said former Swedish prime minister Göran Persson.
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Features
Another fine mess
Ollie: “Buying that bridge was no mistake. That’s going to be worth a lot of money to us someday.” – Way Out West (1937).
