Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 933
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Features
Winning hearts and minds for property indexes
Swedish insurance group SPP recently called a meeting of property analysts from domestic brokerage firms. The idea was to sound out interest in the development in Sweden of commercial real estate indexes, which has been under discussion with the UK’s Investment Property Databank (IPD) for some time. IPD pioneered the ...
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Features
OU thinks again about Sedgwick
The 20-year relationship between The Open University (OU) and its actuarial adviser and consultant Sedgwick Noble Lowndes (SNL) may be about to change. David Prince, the OU’s pension fund manager in Milton Keynes, told IPE: For the first time we are asking ourselves the question whether to appoint Noble Lowndes ...
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Features
Poland adopts the Chilean model
The Polish Parliament is expected to pass legislation allowing Chile-style mandatory pension funds to be set up, with contributions in the first year of operation, expected to be 1999, estimated at $3bn.The new funds, in which major domestic and international banks and insurance companies are expected to be shareholders, will ...
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Features
DB or DC: the debate
Supporters of defined benefit put up a spirited defence of their system against the advocates of defined contribution during a debate at the Asinta network’s annual conference in Rome last month.Roy Cecil, director of human resources Europe, Beckman Instruments, accused proponents of DC of cowardice and gross violations of human ...
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Features
Legal snag hits Italian plans
Legal difficulties surrounding the participation of trade unions on the boards of planned Italian company pension plans mean the first contributions will not be paid until 1998.The Corte dei Couti, a body which oversees the content of legislation, last month struck down a decree put forward by labour minister Tiziano ...
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Features
Multinationals outline benefits plans
Akzo Nobel, the chemicals multinational, plans to set up a common investment fund for its European pensions arrangements. Discussing the company’s plans Bert Kiffen, co-ordinator international pensions affairs, said: It is our view that with a single currency, one investment fund will be possible.” The scheme is still at the ...
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Features
Germany looks at new funding schemes
Occupational pension plans in Germany are mainly financed by building up pensions liabilities in the company through the book reserve system. The external financing vehicles are insurance policies and two types of pensions funds: the Pensionskasse and the Unterstützungskasse (support fund).Currently, three new approaches for external pensions funding are being ...
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Features
Slow shift to real assets
The latest William M Mercer survey of the European pensions market confirms that the grip of the bond culture is still the dominant force, writes Fennell BetsonThe assets of the pensions market in Europe are now around $2.8 trillion, according to the 1997 review issued by the investment consulting practice ...
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Features
What the Belgian doctor ordered
In three years, the pension scheme for Belgian doctors and dentists has been transformed, writes Fennell Betson. No one said it was going to be easyWhen the pension scheme for doctors and related professions in Belgium switched from a pay-as-you-go to a funded basis, it broke moulds. Brussels-based Caisse de ...
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Features
Colossus of public pension finances
French giant CDC looks after the retirement arrangements of over 5m public sector workers. Fennell Betson meets the man in charge
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Features
BAT looks to boost global performance
In 1995, the tobacco and financial conglomerate, BAT Industries decided to develop a corporate pensions function,” appointing Simon Dudley - who had worked in a similar role at Unilever - as its pensions and benefits manager. Dudley, recently promoted to head of group personnel, has begun to implement an international ...
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Features
Flexible benefits 'sweetener'
Giving mobile employees appropriate salaries as they move from country to country rarely poses a problem for an employer.The provision of benefits - especially those such as pensions - can be far more difficult. Local laws often make it impossible for the employee to remain in the home country” pension ...
