Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 379
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Features
Structural importance
Although not a legal necessity, committees are important to the efficient running of pension schemes. Gail Moss looks at their requirements and role
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Country Report
Germany: Where churches lead, others can only follow
Germany leads in clean energy and has a good environmental record in areas like recycling. Yet it remains a laggard in sustainable investing. Nina Röhrbein asks why
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Features
X marks the spot
The hinterland between investment grade and high yield delivers an intriguing risk profile. But Martin Steward also finds that profile changing
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Interviews
Five years on
When Peter Wilby begins our conversation by remarking on Stone Harbor Investment Partners’ imminent fifth birthday, it is as if, stepping back, he suddenly realises what a thrill ride it has been.
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Features
Maltese persuasion
Malta is benefiting from the trend of near-shoring in the securities services business, writes Iain Morse
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Features
How independent is the Old Lady?
Neil Record worries that the Bank of England’s bias towards low rates correlates with a political imperative to inflate away public and financial sector debts. So is monetary policy now controlled by Whitehall, rather than Threadneedle Street?
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Features
Diary of an Investor: Whisky and cigarettes
It was a good year for Wasserdicht Pension Funds. The 2010 return for our Dutch scheme was 7.9% and although we experienced a wobble in our coverage ratio over the summer, thanks to interest rates, we are now back in safe territory.
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Special Report
Risk Parity: Risk parity primer
Andrew J Dudley explains how Putnam’s dynamically allocated risk parity approach balances risk contributions
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Opinion Pieces
Meet Ms Active Ageing
Pension funds will observe with interest the European Commission’s announcement goal of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing. This is to add two years to the average EU healthy lifespan by 2020. However, achieving healthy, longer lives is not quite as straightforward as it seems.
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Opinion Pieces
State debate hots up
The debate about US public employees’ pension benefits is hotting up, and the results will have a great impact on the pension fund industry. For the first time there is a discussion about the real costs of promises made by politicians to public sector employees and the bill to tax payers. In fact, the whole matter is extremely political, as one can see from the very different approaches of two neighbouring states, Wisconsin and Illinois.
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Special Report
Europe's Pension Consultants: A little goes a long way
The UK’s smaller pension schemes are arguably more varied and challenged than the bigger ones. Martin Steward meets some of the advisers dedicated to helping them cope
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Asset Class Reports
European Equities: A heterogeneous marketplace
Top-performing European equity portfolios are both concentrated and very diverse in outlook and composition, finds Joseph Mariathasan
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Asset Class Reports
European Equities: UK equities: The Liontrust approach
The UK equity market is still distinct from that of continental Europe because of factors such as its size, the large number of multi-nationals and mid-sized companies with global presence, and a still large domestic institutional investor base in the form of pension funds with relatively high domestic equity exposures.
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Asset Class Reports
European Equities: Corporate strength abounds
The picture is complex, but in general low indebtedness and high return on equity will cause capital flows to CEE corporates, writes Juraj Kotian
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Features
Consultants have their uses
Just under half (45.5%) of respondents to this month’s Off The Record survey use investment consultancy services on a retainer basis. Some 32% use them on an occasional or project basis, 18% use them in other ways, such as a combination of retainer and project basis, and 4.5% never use ...
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Features
Liam Kennedy: Advice, please
Few consultants wear their heart on their sleeve when it comes to the outcome of their advice to pension funds in terms of hard numbers.
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Features
Martin Steward: Homeward bound
It’s exactly two years since I wrote my first column in IPE. In it, I asked whether the OECD could grow enough to support its pensions. “Pension funds will almost certainly have to increase allocations to emerging markets.”
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Features
Mariska van der Westen: A bumpy ride
It used to be that the pensions industry was considered staid and dependable and – let’s face it – not the most exciting topic of conversation. But no more. After decades of quietly looking after the nation’s pension savings with nary a hitch, Dutch pension fund managers suddenly find themselves ...
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Features
From Our Perspective: Careful what you wish for
At the end of January, Michel Barnier, the European commissioner for the internal market, told an audience of Dutch pension funds definitively that the Commission will not apply Solvency II rules to pension funds.
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Country Report
The Netherlands: United in face of challenges
The financial crisis triggered closer co-operation between the three Dutch pension fund organisations. In November last year the Pension Federation became the single external voice of all 550 Dutch pension schemes, as director Gerard Riemen, explains to Leen Preesman
