All Features articles – Page 369
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Features
Watsons to publish data
Watson Wyatt is following the lead of rival consultant Mercer Human Resource Consulting with publication next January of data on performance of the managers it recommends. The consultants will publish data on theoretical portfolios, divided along various asset classes and run by those managers recommended. Head of European investment consulting ...
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Features
Ring-fencing DB schemes
One open question in the Irish defined contribution (DC) market is the impact of the Personal Saving Retirement Account (PRSA). PRSA are a contract-based DC pension product. They bear a strong similarity to the UK’s stakeholder pension in that it is to extend pensions provision to people who, so far, ...
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Features
Japan embraces DC gratefully
Japan’s long-awaited defined contribution (DC) pension system has made steady progress this year, according to Yasuteru Aizawa, president of the International Pension & Economic Research Institute in Tokyo. More than 100 companies have moved to introduce DC pension schemes, 70 of them small companies. Aizawa hosted a recent conference attended ...
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Features
Rumour of death exaggerated
Last July the US stock funds suffered a $52.4bn withdrawal, the second biggest cash-out as a percentage of assets and the largest ever in dollar volume. A healthy portion of mutual fund assets comes from contributions to individual retirement schemes like 401(k) plans and IRAs (Individual retirement accounts). To many ...
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Features
Reconciling different shareholders' views
There are essentially four major players in the provision of and management of pensions. An understanding of the objectives of each can be very illuminating when considering how they should and how they actually do interact with each other. This ‘Game Theory’ formulation has a clear, explicit macro objective, namely, ...
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Features
Domestic holdings shrink
Irish pension funds invested around 65% of their assets in equities at the end of 2000, according to data from the Irish Association of Pension Funds (IAPF), which represents a similar percentage to that registered at the end of 1999. Regarding the geographical allocation of the equity investments, 19% were ...
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Features
The ETF operating environment
An Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) or ‘tracker’ as it is known in continental Europe is a single share that gives the investor the benefit of exposure to a broad benchmark, sector, country or geographic zone in a single transaction. Essentially ETFs, allow you to enjoy both the flexibility of a ...
