All Features articles – Page 356
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Features
Slaughtering herds
It’s that time of year again when we ask ourselves – just what investment policies and strategic asset allocation decisions make sense in today’s market? The problem is that we are asking ourselves that question rather too often lately. Unfortunately, we don’t appear to have much in the way of ...
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Features
Portuguese improvement
A change in asset allocation by Portuguese pension funds has resulted in an improvement in returns in the third quarter, according to consultant Watson Wyatt. Median returns from the country’s segregated funds for the third quarter were –2.4% from -3.2% the previous quarter. The third quarter was a difficult period ...
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Features
Make liabilities the starting point
As we head for the third straight year of falling equity markets with pension fund surpluses no longer the norm, we are all too painfully aware of the importance of aligning pension strategies with their ultimate objective. Pension assets need to be invested with reference to pension obligations (ultimate cashflows) ...
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Features
Looking for yield pick-up
o Anna Lees-Jones, manager of the M&G Corporate Bond Fund, puts the fund’s success down to its research resources. She has access to the group’s 28 different credit analysts, all of whom are career analysts, having worked in the industry for at least 10 years. “That’s a huge advantage to ...
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Features
Muddle through scenario
Every one of our investment decisions – from the strategic allocation of assets between equities and fixed-income securities to the choice of individual securities – is based on a combination of macro and micro economic information. When assessing macro-economic trends, we attach great importance to the information we receive on ...
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Features
Time to share risks
One factor which could slow the flow from DB to traditional DC schemes is the growing interest in hybrid pension plans in the UK. Actuaries Lane Clark Peacock point out in their annual survey, ‘Accounting for Pensions’, that traditional final salary DB schemes and occupational DC schemes represent extremes of ...
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Features
Sinking under weight of words
The European Council of Ministers adopted its so-called “common position” on the pensions directive on November 5 last year. The 43-page document is currently going through its second reading at the European Parliament. While parliament mulls over the document this winter, it is helpful to examine exactly what the Council ...
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Features
AP3 aims for state-of-art modelling
The Tredje AP-Funden -The Third National Swedish Pension Fund is known to most as the AP3 fund for short. On 1 January 2001, new legislation came into effect in Sweden that radically changed the mandate of the Swedish government AP Funds. Flexible investment rules were introduced allowing the funds to ...
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Features
AP7's private equity choice
Sweden’s seventh national pension fund, AP7, has allocated $84m (e86m) to two US-based private equity fund of fund managers, Hamilton Lane Advisors and HarbourVest Partners. Hamilton Lane will be managing a US private equity fund of fund portfolio balanced between buyout, venture and special situation funds including secondary interests. AP7 ...
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Features
AP7 uses its internet trade reporting system to benefit savers
The Stockholm-based Seventh Swedish National Pension fund, the AP7, describes itself as “a fund option for the entire nation”. Set up just over two years ago, it is different from the other six national pension funds that form part of the restructured state pay-as-you-go (PAYG) system. Firstly, AP7 is a ...
