All Guest Viewpoint articles – Page 13
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Opinion Pieces
Per Linnemann - Independent consulting actuary
“Smoothed income annuities could revive the pension fund industry”
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Opinion Pieces
Paul Schott Stevens, president and CEO, Investment Company Institute
“Global funds have more work to do as part of this retirement savings evolution”
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Opinion Pieces
Alexander Ineichen, Founder of Ineichen Research and Management
“Confusing uncertainty with volatility or VaR is like mistaking a tiger for a pussycat. It’s irresponsible and dangerous”
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Opinion Pieces
Peter Borgdorff, CEO, PFZW
“When I think of the destination of this money, I think of the woman who cycles from house to house and cleans someone’s bottom”
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Opinion Pieces
Daniel Godfrey, CEO,Investment Management Association (UK)
“I want to focus on the importance of our industry in a new expression of our purpose, which underlines the inherent value of our work”
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Opinion Pieces
Felix Goltz, Head of applied research, EDHEC-Risk Institute
EDHEC-Risk Institute conducted a study on corporate bond indices in 2011 to analyse construction methodologies, risk and return properties, and the stability of their risk exposures. Subsequently, EDHEC-Risk Institute organised a ‘call for reaction’ in which it asked investment professionals to give their reactions to the research. Here, we report on the results.
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Opinion Pieces
Rhodri Preece, director of capital markets policy, CFA Institute
Does dark trading hurt market quality? It is a question that has vexed policymakers for some time, and has attracted renewed focus recently following certain exchange initiatives to establish non-displayed trading pools for retail orders. Understanding the relationship between dark liquidity and market quality has become central to the debate on market structure as authorities around the world consider revisions to their respective regulatory frameworks. Measures to support fair competition between displayed and non-displayed trading venues should be the focus of those efforts.
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Opinion Pieces
Heinz Rudolph, Lead pension specialist, World Bank
Between 1997 and 2008, 11 countries in central and eastern Europe (CEE) implemented multi-pillar pension reforms, which involved the creation of mandatory funded schemes. These reforms were motivated by a foreseeable reduction in future pension contributions and extended benefit payments as a result of falling birth rates and people living longer.
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Opinion Pieces
Carl Hitchman, Partner, Hymans Robertson
You have decided that fiduciary management is for you. How then do you go about choosing a suitable manager? While most consultants and managers have been advising on and managing assets for many years, they now overlap in terms of these capabilities, which poses additional challenges. How are fiduciary managers meeting these challenges and structuring themselves to provide clients with the confidence to appoint them?
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Opinion Pieces
Amin Rajan: 'Pension funds demand discipline, but discipline can stifle hedge funds' creativity'
First, the good news: assets under management in hedge funds have not only surpassed their previous peak of around $2trn (€1.6trn) reached in 2007, but they are also likely to attract another trillion dollars by 2016, according to ‘Institutional Investment in Hedge Funds’, a survey by Citi Prime Finance.
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Opinion Pieces
Joseph Mariathasan: The UK should set up a sovereign wealth fund
Britain faces the prospect of an ageing population with a consequent rise in its dependency ratio, and an economy in decline relative to the rest of the world.
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Opinion Pieces
Flavien Duval, Risk officer, Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management
Thousands of reports are produced and distributed to hundreds of people who don’t know what they’re supposed to do with them
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Opinion Pieces
Peter Kraneveld, Secretary of the Association for European Retirement Education
“Supervision should be made responsible for pension quality, not just for solvency”
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Opinion Pieces
Chris Sutton, Towers Watson
Pension funds find themselves between a rock and the hard place as they struggle to provide for ageing populations in a tough investment climate. As a result of this, and of an inheritance of under-funding, retirement savings continue to attract media and public policy attention. Will pension funds be overcome by looming threats or seize the opportunity for change?
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Opinion Pieces
Virginie Maisonneuve & Katherine Davidson, Schroders
“Maternity wards and primary schools in London are experiencing a spike in births, and retailers should benefit”
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Opinion Pieces
Jeroen Wilbrink & Jelle Beenen
In the Guest Viewpoint column of IPE March 2012, Kees Cools and Anton van Nunen claimed that the current calculation used in assessing the health of a pension scheme is incorrect. They also claimed it had forced pension schemes to sell ‘cheap’ equities in favour of ‘expensive’ sovereign bonds, and that this selling has depressed prices of equities.
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Opinion PiecesRonald Doeswijk & Laurens Swinkels, Robeco
To start this contribution on inflation, let’s open with some facts. First, central banks around the world tend to target inflation rates. In developed countries, an inflation target of 2% is not unusual. Second, since major central banks around the globe started to target inflation in the early 1980s, inflation has fallen from double-digit figures to low single digits. So, it is not that difficult to conclude that central banks’ targets are realistic and that there is hardly any reason for investors to worry about inflation in the medium term.
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Opinion Pieces
Kees Cool, Groningen University, and Anton van Nunen, Syntrus Achmea
For the first time since the introduction of the Dutch pension law in 1954, pensioners are to be told that their pensions will be cut by 3-4% from April 2013. Also, companies might be forced to pay extra contributions. The stated reason for this is the low coverage ratios of pension funds. But that this is not correct. By calculating a wrong coverage ratio, employees and pensioners are unduly and unnecessarily hurt, and economic growth is frustrated.
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Opinion Pieces
EIOPA's draft response to the EC on Solvency II
The consultation issued by EIOPA, on its draft response to the EC’s questions about how Solvency II can be amended to apply to pension schemes, closed on 2 January 2012. EIOPA had been asked for advice on how to meet the EC’s objectives of simplifying setting up cross border schemes, modernising the prudential regulation of defined contribution schemes and enabling IORPs to take advantage of risk mitigation techniques. A key procedural objective for the EC is for a consistent regulatory structure to apply across the financial services sector, and it believes this can be achieved by adapting the principles underlying Solvency II for pension schemes.
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Opinion Pieces
Liz Murrall & Jonathan Lipkin, Investment Management Association
Much has been written about investment managers churning stocks, to the detriment of client returns, investee companies and potentially the overall stability of the economy.
