All Features articles – Page 317
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Features
Getting the pensions message across
Good communication is essential in the pension fund business, according to a panel of leading figures in the European pensions industry. Panellists at the third annual IPE Awards in Amsterdam agreed that communication with plan members was an important part of the job of a pension fund manager. And with ...
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Features
'Highly dependent on advisers'
A new report commissioned by the UK government’s pensions department says fund trustees are “highly dependent” on investment consultants. It points out that consultants’ contracts tend not to be based on formal performance assessment. “Investment consultants were involved in many different aspects of investment decision-making, and trustee boards were highly ...
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Features
EU pensions tax issues 'an afternoon's work'
The European occupational pensions tax harmonisation question is just a technical one that could easily be solved, an eminent taxation expert Professor Gerry Dietvorst of Tilburg University told the Awards audience in a keynote address. The problem “can be solved in one afternoon by the ministers of finance”. He said ...
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Features
Why ALM still has a role
In a market environment where the funding ratios of pension funds have suffered severely, asset liability management (ALM) is still a very helpful tool in understanding the various ways a pension fund might restructure its financial position and to repair its balance sheet. ALM is still particularly helpful and useful ...
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Features
Separating out the alpha
Carnegie Asset Management in Copenhagen is focused on one thing and that is global stockpicking. “This probably accounts for 85% of the $4bn (E3.3bn) in assets we have under management,” says Morten Therkildsen, head of sales. About two thirds of assets come from institutional investors. The group, which has operations ...
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Features
TAA alpha there for the taking
Fixed asset weightings in a portfolio are not optimal when risk premiums and volatility vary over time. This renders tactical asset allocation (TAA) a useful supplement to strategic asset allocation. The institutional investor considering the investment process for TAA should consider the spillover effects to other parts of the investment ...
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Features
'Pension funds better investors than asset managers'
European pension funds should manage the core of their business internally, and outsource only the specialist areas of asset management to external managers. This is because pension funds understand their liabilities better than anyone else. Broadly, this was the conclusion of six managers in the pension industry when they debated ...
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Features
Scherkamp puts the clock back
Europe’s large corporates face some searching questions on their approach to pension provision, in the view of Peter Scherkamp, who recently left Siemens in Munich head of finance strategies and Vorstand of the Siemens Pension Trust to set up his own pensions consulting firm. “Chief financial officers realise that they ...
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Features
Bringing the bounce back
Back in the glory days of UK balanced management, Gartmore ranked in the top five managers who contended for practically every piece of pension fund business, while many other asset managers were left out in the cold or having to feed off the crumbs that fell from the golden circle’s ...
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Features
Benchmarking - back to basics
The European pensions industry faces major challenges, some of which will likely lead to significant, if not dramatic, changes. At the broadest level there is growing awareness of the issues raised by long-term demographic trends, especially in those countries where reliance continues to be primarily on the state for retirement ...
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Features
IMF critical of Belgacom move
The Belgian government’s takeover of the Belgacom pension fund has been criticised by the International Monetary Fund as an “ad hoc” measure which masks the country’s true fiscal position. “The current framework that relies on maintaining balanced budgets has served as a valuable policy communication tool,” the organisation said in ...
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Features
Busy times in Belgium
Pensions consultants in Belgium are doing a swift trade. The Belgian parliament approved new legislation on supplementary pension last May. The new law, which takes force in January, is far-reaching, and pension schemes have called in consultants to deal with its implications. “There’s a lot to do, and it affects ...
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Features
Equities to benefit from recovery
Short-term volatility will always feature in equity markets and should be expected. But overall, we believe that equity markets will maintain their positive trend in the months ahead because of the strength of improvement in economic and profits data around the globe. Not only has the US economy reported a ...
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Features
EMTX 'poised for growth boost'
This month Lyxor AM, part of Societe Generale, is due to launch an exchange traded fund that indexed to the new EuroMTS index covering Euro-zone government debt, subject to regulatory approval. This should provide a boost for the index among investors, says Scott Stark, chief executive officer of EuroMTS Index ...
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Features
Burning at both ends
In essence there are two ways on investing in convertibles. One can buy a convertible outright and accept all the risks inherent within the instrument. The main risks are equity risk, for the bond may well convert into equity, credit risk, because as a debt instrument it is subject to ...
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Features
Credit spreads: a great year, from the bottom up
Last year was an excellent year for credit throughout the world’s capital markets. Spreads across all levels of the credit spectrum narrowed markedly over the course of the first 11 months of the year. Figures from Standard & Poor’s show that investment grade credit spreads among US non-financials declined from ...
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Features
Holy grail - or Pandora's box
Has tactical asset allocation (TAA) disappeared? TAA – taking advantage of short-term anomalies in the relative values of assets – has been significantly eroded in pension fund investment structures. Although it is still present within portfolios at a very modest level. In past times UK pension funds funds chose the ...
