All Features articles – Page 122
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Features
Legal battle with Henderson on cards
The dispute between a group of 30 pensions funds and Henderson over the management of two private finance initiative (PFI) funds is a salutary reminder of the need for pension funds and their advisers to minutely scrutinise complex investment agreements. PFI was developed in the UK in the 1990s as ...
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Features
Here comes the nudge
Saving and a frugal approach to life is easily preached. But as decades of ever-increasing loans and credit card debt have shown, the British have never been good at living within their own means, or putting aside money for a downturn. In fact, figures showed a marked increase in credit ...
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Features
The high wire act of asset allocation
Diversification is staging a reincarnation, according to Barb McKenzie and Amin Rajan
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FeaturesThe truly balanced portfolio
Martin Steward spoke with the pioneer of alpha/beta separation and ‘risk parity’ about strategic diversified beta portfolios
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Features
Challenging beginnings
Liam Kennedy asked Hugo Lasat, CEO of Belgium’s Amonis, about the challenge of running a pension fund after a career in asset management and private banking
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Features
Sweetening the coffee
I meet with my old colleague Ronald, who is now CEO of the pension fund for forklift truck drivers – Pensioenfonds Vorkhef. Ronald and I used to work together at Wasserdicht, before he went to the forklift truck drivers and we often meet for a coffee when I am passing ...
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Features
Flourish or flounder?
In this review of the third AIMSE diamonds and duds poll, John Nestor picks out key trends and considers how participants’ opinions have changed
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Features
Unrewarded risk
Three-quarters of respondents to this month’s Off The Record poll use currency management. Of these, 83.4% did so for currency exposure hedging, 8.3% for returns and 8.3% for both reasons.
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FeaturesAlign your interests
Gail Moss assesses how pension fund boards and trustees can make sure their interests are in line with those of their asset managers
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Features
Barbarians at the gate
Gold may be a good hedge against an investment portfolio’s fiat currency exposures. But, Martin Steward asks, does it matter that some investors may be holding it for very different reasons?
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Features
Spanish custody is set for change
Iain Morse reports on the expected effects of Target2 Securities
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Features
Reality check
The read across from US GAAP to IFRS is far from easy, despite the efforts of consultants such as Towers Watson and auditors KPMG to break it down. For example, the pensions comparison in the August 2009 edition of KPMG’s ‘IFRS Compared to US GAAP’, runs to 17 pages.
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FeaturesNetherlands: Towards constitutional rights
Two major reports on pensions set a challenge for the incoming Dutch government, writes Liam Kennedy
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Features
Pitfalls of fiduciary management
Christiaan Tromp outlines the necessary criteria for successful and long-lived fiduciary management partnerships
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Features
GPS: Blow to funds’ optimism
European pension funds say they have become more concerned about their own organisation’s ability to meet its financial objectives during the third quarter of 2010, with pessimistic views outnumbering optimistic views.
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FeaturesPooling – how it works
Gail Moss outlines the essential elements of multinational pension and asset pooling, and how smaller pension funds can get in on the act
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FeaturesNatural Catastrophe Risk - Cats land on their feet
Catastrophe risk delivered positive returns in 2008 amid rising downside correlation but was not immune from credit exposure, finds Martin Steward
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Features
The new silver bullet in the age of uncertainty
In the second article in a new series, Nick Lyster and Amin Rajan argue that the credit crunch has exploded the myth that asset managers and pension consultants possess rare insights
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Features
Thumbs up for central control
This month’s Off The Record poll focused on derivatives, operational risk and custody. Some 61% of respondents felt it was positive that measures in Brussels and the US would force pension funds to clear derivatives using a central counterparty. “Central banks need to be able to control markets in extremis, as we saw two years ago. The only beneficiaries of off-exchange derivatives are investment banks. End users of derivatives should be happy to see them go to central clearers,” said a UK fund. Another UK fund added: “Being transparent will be important”.
