Latest analysis – Page 48
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Opinion Pieces
Towards a 29th regime
A single-market regime for third-pillar pensions has moved closer with a paper entitled Towards an EU-Single Market for Personal Pensions from the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA).
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Opinion Pieces
Retirement saving boost
Who will manage the new My Retirement Account (MyRA) retirement savings vehicle? This is a big question for the US pension fund industry now that President Barack Obama has created the new programme.
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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
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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Opinion Pieces
Brussels to develop rules for social funds
Brussels looks set to flesh out the existing EU regulation for European Social Entrepreneurship Funds (EuSEFs), which lays down broad principles as to how funds should be governed.
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Opinion Pieces
Intriguing opportunities
De-risking strategies are likely to become more popular with US corporate pension funds now they have reached their healthiest state since the crisis. This trend has been ongoing for the last couple of years but may substantially accelerate in 2014, says consultancy Towers Watson.
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Features
Always the season for corporate governance
Before the start of the 2014 AGM season it’s time to review that infamous voting season – the so-called Shareholder Spring of 2012.
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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
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
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
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
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).
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Opinion Pieces
Jerry Moriaty, CEO and Director of Policy at the Irish Association of Pension Funds
“While Ireland begins to show signs of economic improvement, it is clear there are still a lot of unresolved issues in the pensions sector”
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Opinion Pieces
Long-term critics
The European Commission’s report on responses to its consultation paper on long-term investing looks to be at least six months late. But don’t imagine the debate has gone away. The issue is likely to re-ignite in Brussels in the coming months after the Commission produces its assessment this quarter.
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Opinion Pieces
Time to face facts
The Detroit bankruptcy ruling and the new bookkeeping rules from the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) could trigger a wave of changes for the US state and local pension funds this year. Government leaders struggling with budget problems, bondholders that lend money to municipalities and states, and unions that negotiate pension benefits all have to deal with the impact.
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Features
The journey to single EU financial legislation
The reform efforts of EU financial authorities are mostly focused on life insurance. But there are no grounds for the occupational pensions sector to rejoice – its turn will come later if regulatory plans come to pass.
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Features
Taking it one step at a time
The success or failure of Prof John Kay’s proposed investor forum hinges, unsurprisingly, on its ability to attract a critical mass of asset managers and owners to the table.
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Opinion Pieces
Opposing oil divestment
Divestment from oil companies to stop climate change will not work. But by being largely disinterested, the investment industry has given clients and NGOs nowhere else to go. So how should investors push back against divestment?
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FeaturesEmerging opportunities
Over three-quarters (16 respondents) of the 20 investors polled for this month’s Focus Group believe the recent underperformance of emerging-market assets has made them more attractive to their fund. According to a UK fund: “Emerging-market performance is still likely to compare favourably with developed-market performance.”
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Opinion Pieces
Not ready yet
‘Retirement readiness’ is the catch phrase of 2014 in the US pension industry.
