All Features articles – Page 127
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Features
Over the worst of it?
Today we received seven e-mails and four telephone calls asking for meetings. Over the month we have seen 63 such requests. Times are changing and we see this as another indicator of the worst being over.
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Features
Decisions, decisions
This month’s Off The Record survey looked at pension funds’ approach to their asset allocation. The majority of respondents – 55.5% – said their pension fund was subject to asset allocation restrictions by the respective regulator or fund-specific regulations.
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Features
A Selective Focus
ABN AMRO’s Dutch pension fund believes its focus on all stakeholder interests has helped prevent it from dropping below its statutory funding level. Liam Kennedy spoke to Rob Meuter, chairman of the trustee board, and Geraldine Leegwater, head of investments for the fund’s in-house pension bureau
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Features
Nordic lights shine
Iain Morse assesses trends in the custody markets of the Nordic countries
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Features
Under my roof
If you manage money in-house you must ask yourself whether your aim is to add value or to save on fees. Now is also a good time to find talented staff, finds Gail Moss
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Features
Turning a crisis into an opportunity
In the fourth article on a new study, Amin Rajan and Jervis Smith argue that extraordinary times offer an opportunity to create businesses of enduring value
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Features
Cautious about alternatives
This month’s Off The Record survey looked at alternative investments.
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Features
Diary of an Investor: Simple train of thought
Yesterday we had an ‘aha’ moment. Our departmental assistant, Maria, wondered why we were all doing so much. “Equities, government bonds, corporate bonds, property, currency, commodities, hedge funds, I don’t know how you keep track all of this.
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Features
Easy riders
Portfolios of minimum variance stocks appear to reproduce a true risk factor beta that can outperform cap-weighted benchmarks. Martin Steward asks why no-one uses them in the real world
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Features
Essential governance
Gail Moss presents IPE’s guide to pension fund governance and how to do it better
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Features
Sorry, we forgot
At IASB’s July staff meeting on pensions, two concerns sprang to mind. One was the risk of too many cooks spoiling the broth. The other was that in addition to the other woes that have plagued her project, senior project manager Anne McGeachin has had human resource management added to the list.
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Features
Risk and human bias
Risk managers are being advised to take more notice of the human element when investing in the financial markets and economic theory cannot truly work unless it incorporates human emotional traits, according to research conducted by Investor Analytics and BNY Mellon Alternative Investment Services’.
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Features
Tide turns on PE balance of power
Calpers, the giant US public pension fund, announced in September that it would endorse principles set out by the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA) to promote stronger alignment of interests between private equity limited and general partners. Experts in the private equity market are touting those principles as a foundation ...
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Features
The yin and yang of asset allocation
In the third article in a series on a new study, Amin Rajan and Jim McCaughan show that clients are testing contrasting approaches
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Features
Swaps are now an option
Gail Moss assesses approaches to longevity. Aside from raising the retirement age, pension funds now have a longevity swap market to add to their toolkit
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Features
Iceland’s crisis fund
Icelandic pension funds are in the process of finalising details of the Icelandic Investment Fund (IIF), which will invest in domestic businesses that have suffered in the economic crisis. Hrafn Magnússon, managing director of the Icelandic Pension Funds Association (IPFA), an umbrella organisation for 33 pension funds, revealed that the IIF is expected to have funds of between ISK 50-75bn (€275-413m) to invest in companies in all economic sectors.
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Features
‘Perseverance is crucial’
Nina Röhrbein assesses this year’s cross-border fiduciary management deal between APG in the Netherlands and Italy’s PensPlan
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Features
Risk separation
The 2008 asset allocation review of UBS’ Swiss Pensionskasse turned into a more extensive exercise than the fund had expected, but the fund kept faith with its strategic asset allocation. Nina Röhrbein was in conversation with Christoph Schenk, the funds CIO and recently appointed CIO and head of investments for UBS AG
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Features
Is credit due?
Corporate bond managers insist that active management is no luxury in their asset class. Martin Steward asks if they are just talking their book
