Latest analysis – Page 68
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Opinion Pieces
Funds lead reform calls
As Wall Street prepares to pay some of the fattest bonuses ever to its bankers and Congress remains some way from approving any substantial reform of the financial system, institutional investors such as pension funds are stepping forward to push for change – both at the political level as well ...
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Features
DC risk sharing and how to go about it
The investment losses suffered in the last two years of downturn have inspired new thinking – not least on how to improve the risk-return profile of defined contribution (DC) pension investing and how to secure cheap DC guarantees. Many of these ideas were discussed at a conference on DC risk-sharing in January hosted at The University of Exeter Business School. And they could be useful to the pension regimes of most countries, according to participants.
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Features
Corporate compliance
Corporate governance processes of institutional investors have come under the spotlight with the publication of two UK reviews. The Walker Review and the Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC) review of the UK Combined Code encourage greater shareholder engagement through a proposed Stewardship Code. But what impact will they have on pension ...
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Opinion Pieces
A year of execution
The year ahead in Brussels will be one of implementing measures to tighten financial legislation. But will the financial services regulatory programme align with the plans of the G20, or be diluted under pressure from one lobby after another? Whatever the outcome, no-one should expect a bump-free ride.
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Features
UK covenant semantics
Almost 18 months into the financial crisis, UK pension funds are still struggling to ensure employer covenants will protect pension plans should a company go under or be unable to plug the deficit. But lessons have also been learned in that time. This suggests trustees are at least improving their own governance.
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Features
Fiduciary futures
Pension funds outside the Netherlands struggled to understand fiduciary management only two years ago, but now the concept is thriving and evolving independently in different European countries, a report finds.
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Opinion Pieces
The sands shift
December 2009 may have marked the end of the downturn in US for the job market and retirement savings, after two very tough years. There were signs of stabilisation with companies starting to hire again, while employees who survived received statements from their pension funds that were no longer horrible.
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Opinion Pieces
AIFM Directive delayed
Delayed scheduling in Brussels of the Alternative Investment Fund Directive — by about six months — might be bringing smiles to the faces of the anti-reform lobby. They would not mind at all that the Directive’s final clearance, through a European Parliament plenary session, is now estimated for June or ...
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FeaturesGoing beyond sound-bite leadership
In the final article in this series, Neeraj Sahai and Amin Rajan conclude that asset mangers can no longer afford to confuse the buzz of the investment function with leadership
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Opinion Pieces
Fund fees challenged
Mutual funds managed $1.8trn (€1.2trn), or 48%, of assets in 401(k) and other defined contribution plans in the US as of end-June 2009. Annual management fees earned were more than $10bn but these are now at risk of being cut because of two pending legal decisions. One will be made by the Supreme Court on a case about how much money-management firms can charge. The other one will be made in Congress. The House education and labour committee has already approved the 401(k) Fair Disclosure and Pension Security Act, while the Senate special committee on ageing has its own legislation.
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Opinion Pieces
WMD under fire
Brussels is set to regulate the over-the-counter derivatives market, but it could still be some time, perhaps years, before the European Commission achieves implementation of any legislative steps across the member states.
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Features
Turning a crisis into an opportunity
In the fourth article on a new study, Amin Rajan and Jervis Smith argue that extraordinary times offer an opportunity to create businesses of enduring value
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Opinion Pieces
Pensions re-think
As the drive to reform private pensions in the US gathers pace, features of the UK’s forthcoming personal accounts system – which includes mandatory automatic enrolment, prohibition of fund withdrawal and the mandatory annuitisation of benefits – could be adopted in the US. One of the US lawmakers pushing in this direction is George Miller, Democrat Representative for California, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.
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Features
Risk and human bias
Risk managers are being advised to take more notice of the human element when investing in the financial markets and economic theory cannot truly work unless it incorporates human emotional traits, according to research conducted by Investor Analytics and BNY Mellon Alternative Investment Services’.
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Features
Tide turns on PE balance of power
Calpers, the giant US public pension fund, announced in September that it would endorse principles set out by the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA) to promote stronger alignment of interests between private equity limited and general partners. Experts in the private equity market are touting those principles as a foundation ...
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Features
The yin and yang of asset allocation
In the third article in a series on a new study, Amin Rajan and Jim McCaughan show that clients are testing contrasting approaches
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Features
Iceland’s crisis fund
Icelandic pension funds are in the process of finalising details of the Icelandic Investment Fund (IIF), which will invest in domestic businesses that have suffered in the economic crisis. Hrafn Magnússon, managing director of the Icelandic Pension Funds Association (IPFA), an umbrella organisation for 33 pension funds, revealed that the IIF is expected to have funds of between ISK 50-75bn (€275-413m) to invest in companies in all economic sectors.
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Opinion Pieces
The pensions professor
Teresa Ghilarducci is one of the most watched economists and pension experts these days. She is the Irene and Bernard Schwartz Professor of Economic Policy Analysis and the director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York, and the author of the book ‘When I’m Sixty-Four: The Plot against Pensions and the Plan to Save Them’
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Opinion Pieces
AIFM: "Blood and guts"
The European Commission’s proposals for its Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) directive faces a tough time as it progresses through the European Parliament, and there could be blood and guts flying during hearings in the Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) committee.
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FeaturesThe simplicity bug is spreading
In the second article in a series on a new study, Amin Rajan and Nicholas Lyster argue that, like other crises, this one will pass. But its pain will long endure
