All Features articles – Page 154
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Features
A single manager approach but wide net to cast
Investing in hedge funds requires specific skills and careful monitoring. Pension schemes usually use hedge funds to ensure a robust diversification and the safest and perhaps easiest method of investing in this increasingly common alternative is through funds of funds. But for Ilmarinen, Finland’s €23bn multi-employer scheme, which has 3% or €750m of its overall portfolio in hedge funds, that is no longer enough.
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Features
Playing the away game
Oslo Pensjonsforsikring is Norway’s largest local authority pension scheme. Named after the city it represents and with assets of €4.4bn, it manages and provides pensions income and benefits for some 30,000 active members, 23,000 deferred members and almost 56,000 pensioners who work or have worked in the Norwegian capital’s public sector.
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Features
Balancing life and pensions
Starting with a blank canvas back in 2003, the creation of the Bank of Ireland’s LifeBalance product was one of three components of the bank’s new integrated group pensions strategy that was developed by the group pensions department. The three components are governance, benefits and fund structures.
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Features
Reaping the benefits
Funds of funds continued their healthy performance in October, and the Eurekahedge Fund of Funds index rose an impressive 3% during the month.These returns came on the back of strong performance of underlying hedge funds, which did well against the back drop of soaring equity-prices, surging commodity-prices, and further declines ...
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Features
A little bit more can go a long, long way
Sweden’s public sector AP3 scheme, one of the Swedish government’s four state buffer funds, has had a bit of a rough ride recently. After achieving the lofty heights of 17.7% returns for what it must have considered a stable portfolio at the time, last year’s 9.5% has led to a rethink that has seen AP3 once again walk away with a couple of IPE’s renowned European pensions awards – not least the one featured here as Sweden’s best scheme.
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Features
Broadening the options
New regulation may go some way towards widening the investment possibilities for Spain’s pension funds, Iain Morse finds
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Features
Phasing in changes
There is movement on the state pension front in Portugal, Iain Morse finds
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Features
Making choices the fun way
Effective communication in the pension scheme world is paramount, as how well you get the message across affects the many choices members have to make to ensure they get the best level of pension income when they retire.
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Features
Custodians warm to Spain
Good fundamentals are attracting securities services providers but there are hurdles for non-resident investors, writes Heather McKenzie
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Features
Default dilemmas
Now that the US Department of Labor (DoL) has defined which default investments for 401(k) participants are right, will employers’ lives be easier? Not necessarily.
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Features
Finding the right level
Founded in 1961, Inarcassa began life as the state-run pension fund for Italian Architects and Engineers.
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Features
Fully funded
Sandy Flight, chief exchequer officer, Dundee City Council in Scotland, tells David White that the main objective of Tayside Superannuation Fund is to maximise overall return within reasonable risk parameters, and that means having a clear asset allocation strategy and sticking to it
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Features
Third man leading the pack
Gildi, Iceland’s third-largest pension scheme with €2.18bn under management, believes it deserves the IPE award for Iceland thanks to its successful portfolio management and performance.
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Features
Waiting in limbo
Among the challenges facing Spain’s pension funds is regulatory sclerosis, George Coats writes
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Features
A touch of magic
To win an award of any type is recognition that you stick out from your peers and have achieved excellence. To gain the ultimate accolade of Best Pension Scheme in Europe means you have worked magic and your level of innovation has resulted in something extra special. That sums up KBC’s recent review of its investment strategy perfectly.
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Features
Two for the price of one
Two complementary pay-as-you-go pension plans operating under one roof, Agirc and Arrco are managed by two pensions federations whose decision-making bodies are controlled by the company partners – Agirc and Arrco.
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Features
The thinking pension revolutionary
Thought leadership is a well-worn term but one sure practitioner in the pension fund world is Keith Ambachtsheer, who has been voted by our readers as winner of this year’s IPE Gold Award for outstanding industry contribution.
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Features
Widening the remit
A law has been drafted allowing Spain’s reserve fund to invest in equities. But, as George Coats finds, its details and timescale are still unknown
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Features
That special touch
Inarcassa’s approach to its investments since it was privatised 12 years ago has been both innovative and diligently planned.
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Features
Reshaped returns help to unscramble risk puzzle
The Best Finnish Pension Fund in this year’s IPE Awards is VR Pension Fund (Division B), one of a range of pension plans for employees of Finnish Railways. VRPF has won the accolade for its achievements in efficiently reshaping the return distribution of its portfolio, as well as minimising asset/liability ...
