All Features articles – Page 89
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Features
Little nests, birds and all that stuff
Keith Ambachtsheer’s ideal pension plan would not concern itself with labels such as defined benefit (DB) or defined contribution (DC) – rather, it would look at outcome and work its way back to a solution enabling such an outcome.
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Features
DB, DC and all that
Wasserdicht’s Dutch pension fund is one of the few that has maintained a strong solvency ratio throughout the crisis of the past few years.
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Features
Be honest about the cost
Flood protection is generally reckoned to be a sound investment, given the relatively small outlay compared with the high cost to life and property when water inundates homes, shops and factories. When the British Isles were pounded by the severest storms in living memory in February, attention naturally focused on whether budget constraints had jeopardised flood protection, and whether greater expenditure would be needed to secure communities and prevent future floods.
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Features
Why 7 February didn’t cow the bulls
When ex-Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke mentioned the possibility of ‘tapering’ the bank’s quantitative easing programme back in May 2013, the first market response was somewhat confused.
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Features
Asset allocation was key in 2013
Economic commentators in 2013 often swayed in the wind over the course of the year. Equity markets went from bull to bear, and back to bull again, as emerging markets felt the stinging chaos of capital flows, in both directions.
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Features
Illiquid but not non-transparent
Cyril Demaria argues that private equity illiquidity need not prevent the creation of a model for vintage return prediction that can reduce the prudential capital costs of the asset class
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Features
On the horizon
In the first of a two-part round-up, Stephen Bouvier asks leading pensions accounting experts to identify the IAS 19 issues to watch in the year ahead
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Features
The US Treasury’s New Year gift
The US Treasury brings to market its first new product in nearly 20 years. Stephanie Schwartz reports
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Features
Focus Group: Shareholder voting policy
Thirteen of the 18 investors polled for this month’s Focus Group have shareholder voting policies – and of those that do not, just one is working on such a policy.
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Features
Sustainability is key in farmland
Nina Röhrbein looks at the future of farmland as an asset class
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Features
De-risking poised for growth but risks remain
Consultants’ hopes that the UK de-risking market would rebound in 2013 appear to have been fulfilled. This follows an underwhelming 2012 during which transaction volumes fell by a half.
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Features
From recycle to growth cycle
Brian Bollen asks whether a pick-up in corporate and economic activity can awake the loan market from a torpor of refinancing
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Features
How do you colour-code that?
At Wasserdicht Pensioenfonds, some of our trustees have started to scrutinise our internal investment organisation.
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Features
Spread wealth with caution
Back in the days when the roar of Ireland’s Celtic tiger economy echoed across Europe and the wider world, the country was widely praised for its foresight in 2001 when it created a sovereign fund, the National Pension Reserve Fund, with the proceeds of the sale of Telecom Eireann.
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Features
The Canada factor
If only our pension funds could be more Canadian – which is to say, large, well-governed institutions that are prominent and successful investors. Canada has these in spades, counting among its ranks four of the top 20 biggest global real estate investors and also four of the top 20 infrastructure investors respectively.
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Features
Double bottom line
Eugene O’Callaghan, investment director of the National Pensions Reserve Fund, tells Liam Kennedy about the business plan for the new Ireland Strategic Investment Fund and progress so far in transitioning the portfolio into one with a dual mandate for returns and economic impact
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Features
Better governance – to what end?
Before Gordon Gekko launches into his “Greed is good” speech, the CEO of Teldar Paper harangues him as the face of the “short-term profit, slot machine mentality of Wall Street”. But Gekko isn’t like the high-frequency traders or quarterly earnings-obsessed benchmark huggers whom we tar with that brush.
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Features
National benefit calculation
When they came under criticism, Canada’s top 10 pension funds hired blue-chip consultants to find out what they contributed to the national economy, Christopher O’Dea writes
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Features
Back to the future
Pension fund boards and their investment teams should form a new partnership to promote flexibility in strategy, argues Théodore Economou
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Features
ATP challenges sales tax rules at ECJ
The debate over whether services to occupational pension schemes should be subject to value added tax (VAT) is a familiar one within the industry. Three cases have now found their way to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
