All Features articles – Page 181
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Features
IAS19 under scrutiny
Nina Röhrbein looks at what impact the IAS19 accounting standards review is likely to have on DC and DB schemes across Europe
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Features
Ahead in 2007
IPE has asked three pensions funds, three investment managers and three consultants to give their opinions on some key issues that will be facing the pensions industry over the coming year
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Entering into the 26th regime
Proposals for 26th regime pension products come under the critical gaze of the Dutch pension insurers association working party on these products
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Credit markets set for tough year ahead
Yield curve/duration Though the US housing market continues to show significant signs of weakness, prompting economists to downgrade domestic growth forecasts, the US consumer has yet again surprised us by significantly increasing their spending rather than their savings during October. And another shock came in the form of a significantly ...
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Features
Airlines' excess pensions baggage
In the cut-throat world of air transport, one of the biggest upheavals has been the arrival of the no-frills airlines. But it is not only in ticket pricing where these airlines have been able to undercut the national carriers. They have far lower pension costs too. And these add to ...
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Asset pooling steals the limelight
However desirable a pan-European pension fund might be, pension asset pooling is what is on offer currently, Nina Röhrbein finds
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Groupe expects changes to assumptions under IORP
The Groupe Consultatif Actuariel Européen says it expects to see “significant” changes in the way discount rates and other pension fund assumptions are determined under the occupational pension fund directive. The Groupe, which represents European Union actuarial associations, has issued a 26-page study called ‘Minimum Technical Provisions for Defined Benefit ...
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Features
Call for think tanks to help benefit systems
Nobel prize winner James Heckman calls for European think tanks to help tackle the issues facing welfare states and their pension systems. Speaking to IPE at the sidelines of the recent European Colloquia in Prague, organised by Pioneer Investments, Heckman said in order to provide pensions to their ageing populations, ...
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Features
Optimising beta
Institutional investors may be missing out on the full benefits of a core-satellite approach to portfolio investment because they are using broad market indexes as benchmarks for the core and failing to optimise the passive part of their portfolio. This was the central message of Noël Amenc, professor, finance department, ...
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Bonds to the rescue? It’s a blip
The numbers pack a punch. In the autumn Mercer reported that the pension fund liabilities of the top 50 mainland European companies totalled £72bn - compared with a £45bn funding gap for their UK FTSE 100 counterparts. Notably, pensions risk exposure in Germany’s Dax 30 companies was 20% higher than ...
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Features
Equities excel while bonds underperform
October was characterised by the improving performance of the stock markets, as indicated by the above average returns of the S&P 500, while volatility remained at the same level as the previous month, still close to its historical lows. Bond market performance declined again, reaching a low, but still positive, ...
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Cooperlavoro waits for the breakthrough
This Italian fund’s strong performance is beginning to attract the interest of potential members. David White talks to Flavio Casetti
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Features
Building stronger portfolios
Pension funds should build stronger portfolios to brace themselves for worst-case scenarios rather than just researching them a panel discussion ‘Where are the markets moving and how to react’, that was moderated by Karel Stroobants, chairman of Akkermans Stroobants & Partners. “We were too often disappointed by diversification when we ...
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Features
Responding to the challenges
Corporate pensions are facing contentious issues right across the board. Rachel Fixsen talks to a range of funds to find out how they are responding. We also highlight the issues of tax, IAS19, asset pooling, liabilities, airlines, multinational pooling and portability
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Features
Giving risk every chance to earn
Germany’s largest independent pension provider, the Munich-based BVK multi-employer fund that runs €40bn is assets for 12 different professional and occupational groups has taken the next steps in developing its approach to asset allocation by making risk management core to the process. The introduction of the fund’s new risk budgeting ...
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Features
Face of sector to continue changing
IPE asked three pension funds – in the Czech Republic, Denmark and the Netherlands – the same question: ‘What challenges and opportunities do you expect to face in 2007?’ Here are their answers:
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Switch to DC set to continue
More politics for state pension funds, more cuts for corporate defined benefit (DB) plans. This is year 2007 in a nutshell for the US retirement industry. With only one year away from the 2008 presidential election and a bullish Wall Street helping assets’ growth, state retirement systems feel less the ...
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Features
Cornering the risk factor
To make correct investment decisions investors need a proper framework; flexible enough to realistically capture the complexity of their situation. Risk and return are crucial, that much is obvious, but how do we measure risk? Many fall back on the standard Markowitz model, defining risk as the standard deviation of ...
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Features
Time to cross the frontier?
There are over 350 frontier stocks that can be considered investible according to Constantine Papageorgiou, so a commitment to this market at an early stage could be well rewarded
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Features
Pas de deux or danse macabre?
With a universe of 4,000 stocks and a raft of specialist managers how do investors exploit this extraordinary marketplace? Joseph Mariathasan reports
