All Features articles – Page 113
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Features
Central direction, local implementation
Liam Kennedy spoke with Benedikt Köster and Sven Rogge about Deutsche Post DHL’s pension risk management framework and its implementation
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Features
Responding to the wake-up call
In the third article in the current series, Nick Lyster and Amin Rajan argue that only a gold standard in client engagement will deliver decent innovation outcomes
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From our perspective: A very bumpy ride
Bumpy flights have predictable and unpredictable outcomes: you know the ride will be more uncomfortable and some of the passengers may be sick. You just don’t know precisely when you’re going to hit the turbulence, or whether you or the person next to you is going to be the one who needs the sick bag. You might end up landing at a different airport altogether if the flight is diverted.
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Features
The attractions of age as an asset class
Delegates at September’s Longevity Seven conference in Frankfurt discussed the practicalities of a liquid longevity market and who might invest in it, should old age become an asset class.
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Martin Steward: Mayhem on Wall Street – and Main Street
As the kids ran riot across England on 8 August, traders nursed a one-month stock market loss of 15%. I don’t suppose the rioters were thrown into panic by their Bloomberg screens, but this was a striking coincidence for long-term investors to ponder.
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Features
Volatility hits some more than others
Most European pension funds put on a brave face during the wild stock market swings at the end of last month, but some handled the pressure better than others. The larger Dutch funds initially adopted a rather phlegmatic attitude as the panic first set in, emphasising the long-term nature of ...
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Features
Irish pension schemes face closure pressure
The stock market volatility witnessed in August has had differing effects on pension funds, depending on the country and its approach to pension investment. In the UK, it has resulted in higher deficits, increasing the possibility of an insurance buy-in and in the Netherlands, it has caused coverage ratios to ...
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Features
Liam Kennedy: Break some policy eggs
After years of poorly conceived occupational pensions policy, the UK is finally attempting to remedy the situation – at least in the defined contribution area.
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Features
Jim Robinson: I’m waiting for the alien invasion
Two snippets of news recently caught my eye for peculiar reasons. I say ‘peculiar’ because this summer has brought many eyebrow-raising news stories, including the collapse of the Greek economy, the sovereign debt crisis, the News of the World hacking scandal, the US credit downgrade, the panic in equity markets ...
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Features
Surprise tactics
Martin Steward spoke with Paul Haines, CIO of Trafalgar House Pension Trust, about its break with tradition to launch a pioneering investment strategy
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Features
The long and short of it
With the deep-value trade over and macroeconomic volatility abundant, Lynn Strongin Dodds assesses the case for absolute return in credit
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Features
Pieter’s Italian job
The best thing about August is holidays – this year two weeks by the beach in on the Italian Riviera with my wife and children. Italy is the best for family holidays; everything is to hand. Life is relaxed, the weather is fine, the food is good and the wine flows in the evening.
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Features
Different policies on insurance
Using insurance firms to provide protection for pension fund liabilities is a popular solution among DB schemes. Gail Moss looks at the various forms these insurance policies can take
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Features
Funds unfazed by ban
Almost 70% of respondents to this month’s Off The Record survey told us they had not decided to suspend securities lending in light of recent market turbulence and the short-selling bans imposed by four European countries. However, a Danish fund that had decided to suspend securities lending stated that they had taken this action as “the earnings are too little compared with the risks”.
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Features
Attention to themes for the long term
Alternative indices may still represent a small portion of the market, but could become much more important in future because they satisfy investor needs for stability and diversity beyond traditional indices. This is the conviction of MSCI, one of the largest providers in this industry, as Theodore Niggli, head of the index business at MSCI, explains.
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Features
From our perspective: All-terrain vehicles
As one commentator points out in this issue, Dutch pension funds were regarded as high performance cars in the early 1990s. High equity allocations and a cash-flow positive status meant many enjoyed years of good returns in the 1980s and 90s, riding the heights of the equity bull market and barely scathed by the 1987 crash. Perceived as ‘rich’, by politicians, they could be taxed and any remaining surplus distributed to employers.
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Features
IAS19 washes whiter
Stephen Bouvier assesses some reactions to the revised IAS19 accounting provisions on employee benefits
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Features
DC products 2.0
The new generation of DC products may well evolve in the way that the internet has turned into web 2.0, according to Nick Lyster and Amin Rajan
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Features
What do regulators need?
Pension regulators come in a variety of shapes and forms. Sometimes those forms change to reflect prevailing wisdom on the best constitution of financial regulatory and supervisory bodies.
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Features
Risk remains a top issue
Over three-quarters of respondents to this month’s Off The Record survey stated that risk management had been raised as an agenda item on their board in the past 12 months. This was slightly lower than reported at the same time last year (85%), but still clearly shows its importance as an issue for pension funds.
