Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 377
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Features
Germany’s fiduciary confusion
The simmering debate over institutional interest in fiduciary management in Germany – or rather the lack of it – has boiled over in recent weeks, with an array of consultants and asset managers weighing in on costs, transparency, conflicts of interest and even the very meaning of the term.
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Book Review
Books: The wheat and the chaff
"Investment Beliefs: A Positive Approach to Institutional Investing", by Kees Koedijk and Alfred Slager, 2011, 205 pages
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Book Review
Books: In a ‘death spiral’
‘The Day After the Dollar Crashes: A Survival Guide for the Rise of the New World Order’, by Damon Vickers, Wiley 2011, 190 pages
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Country Report
Germany: Deutschland AG adapts
The last 10 years have seen a dismantling of the ‘Deutschland AG’ network of cross shareholdings, writes Nina Röhrbein, but there is still room for improvement
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Country Report
Germany: Rise and fall of funded pensions
Funded schemes for German civil servants are drawing criticism – for investment policies, low contributions or because they are being discontinued in many cases. Barbara Ottawa reports
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Country Report
Germany: Liberal tradition
Versorgungswerke, the odd ones out in the German funded pension system, are a successful model of funding first pillar pensions. Barbara Ottawa reports on the critical factors
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Country Report
Germany: A market dominated by providers
Pensionsfonds are established in the German occupational pension market yet bureaucratic hurdles hamper further development, write Alfons Schwarz and Ralph Rost
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Country Report
Germany: Could do better
Norman Dreger reviews Germany’s position in the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension index and outlines areas for improvement
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Country Report
Austria: The long wait
Barbara Ottawa reports on why Austria is still waiting for an amendment to the law on Pensionskassen and what the industry is doing in the meantime
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Special Report
Longevity: Beyond buyout and buy-in
The time seems right to develop an international secondary market for longevity risk that allows pension funds to deal with the downside of longer lives, writes Mariska van der Westen
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Special Report
Longevity: Uncertain life expectancies
In the Netherlands, sharply rising life expectancies have been an issue since 2009. Every pension fund is using its own numbers, and the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) forecasts diverge from the Dutch Actuarial Association’s. André de Vos tries to sort the confusion
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Special Report
Longevity: Age concerns
In Europe, Germany faces the most pressure to deal with an ageing population finds Jonathan Williams
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Special ReportLongevity: Live long… and prosper?
Individual circumstances can make a decade of difference to how long we live after retirement. As Sarah Harper, Kenneth Howse and Steven Baxter observe, this makes simply raising the retirement age inequitable
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Special Report
Longevity: Lives of the SAINTs
At four million, the small population of Denmark is not a reliable dataset for longevity projections. Rachel Fixsen finds out how ATP went global for a better model
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Special Report
Longevity: Will you still feed me?
Improving longevity is clearly a problem on the liabilities side of the balance sheet. Martin Steward looks at it as an opportunity on the assets side, both to generate return and offset risk
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Asset Class Reports
Credit: A topsy-turvy world
The financial crisis has re-arranged the contours of credit risk, writes Joseph Mariathasan. Deciding what represents low risk is the greatest challenge
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Asset Class Reports
Credit: Different dimensions of style
Joseph Mariathasan reports on a new set of indices that add a defensive/dynamic dimension alongside market cap and value/growth
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Special Report
Taking climate change in your stride
Nina Röhrbein looks at Mercer’s project to help institutional investors tailor their investment portfolios to manage the risks as well as exploit the opportunities thrown up by climate change
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Features
Credit to lending
Many pension funds canned their securities lending programmes outright in 2008 but have now recovered their nerve. However, Iain Morse argues that regulation is now likely to drive the future shape of the industry
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Features
Signs are up for ESG
More than 70% of respondents to this month’s Off The Record survey stated their fund had an ESG policy. A Dutch fund commented: “Our participants put a lot of attention on sustainability. We have a long-term view and believe sustainability is an important theme, [and] have included it in our ...
