Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 432
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Features
Doing it whose way?
Frank Sinatra’s career was famously long-lived. It was also notable for a series of farewell concerts, at one of which the singer collapsed on stage. He was 78 at the time and died at 82. For DB pension funds, seeing members over 80 at annual pensioner meetings is not unusual, ...
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Features
Winning the ‘hearts and minds of men’
The global debt markets have experienced what Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his best- selling book described as a ‘Black Swan’ event. In other words, a market dislocation whose impact has been enormous, the full ramifications impossible to predict and, post the event, subject to rationalisation. The only thing that is ...
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FeaturesMinus five is the new zero
Absolute return strategies do not always produce absolute returns, and alternative investments are not always decorrelated from the mainstream. Long/short investors do not always have skill in shorting, let alone the long. Convertible arbitrageurs are not always able to arbitrage their convertibles. Leveraged strategies have seen their leverage dry up ...
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FeaturesDebt dilemmas
The chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), Sir David Tweedie, might do well to listen a little more closely to Berlin than to Washington. In line with problems outlined in November last year by the executive chairman of Germany’s DRSC accountancy standard setter, Heinz-Joachim Neubürger (see end), ...
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Features
Mixed feelings on hedge funds
Hedge funds attracted plenty of attention in 2008 for reasons such as the widespread lack of performance and the alleged Madoff fraud. This month’s Off The Record survey finds opinions divided on hedge funds, with equally strong views voiced by both those who invest in hedge funds and those who ...
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Features
Diary of an Investor: Alternative woes
We are evaluating - constantly - our exposure to alternatives. How innocuous that word ‘alternative’ sounds; it does not do justice to the magnitude of actual and potential losses. It is not because opportunities are not there, but it is the continuing outflows that threaten us and our managers. James, ...
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InterviewsNeed to ensure there’s transparency
Paul Kellerd (UK) Pension advisor to the EDS pension plans in the UK, which have invested assets of just over £1bn (€1.1bn) Although it is now quite common, in particular for larger UK funds, to invest in hedge funds, currently we don’t. However, we did conduct some due diligence with ...
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FeaturesDecision time
Gail Moss outlines structures and models for pension fund investment decision making
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FeaturesThe Achilles heel of DC plans
In the third in a series of articles, Amin Rajan argues that DC plans risk sparking a gigantic mis-selling scandal
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FeaturesTaxing developments
Peter Schonewille reports on infringement procedures against 14 EU member states over withholding tax, on a recent opinion on Finnish dividend taxation and on real estate taxation
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FeaturesBeware Japanese proverbs
The experience of Japanese pension funds in the 1990s provides an interesting lesson for Western investors, finds David White
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Country ReportLocal bias extracts a price
When the Irish stock exchange was booming, domestic equities were the place to be. But many pension funds were slow to diversify and this is reflected in their returns, finds George Coats
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Country Report
Shelved, not forgotten
The Green Paper on pensions was supposed to play a key role in the evolution of Irish pensions policy but the market and economic crises have seen it drop off the government’s agenda. George Coats assesses whether it still has any relevance in the new situation
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Country Report
Putting the focus on regulation
Regulation was one the main issues mentioned in responses to the government’s Green Paper on Pensions, with many submissions focusing on the funding standard for DC pension schemes. “There were always potential problems around the issue of the funding standard and it has become a lot more real now,” says ...
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Country Report
The Leaving of Ireland
What happens when transient workers who have paid into Irish pension funds return home? Gail Moss investigates
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Country ReportFears of added financial burden
Opinion is divided on the practicalities of setting up a pension protection scheme in Ireland, finds Julie Henderson
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Country ReportPrevailing winds on lifeboat scheme
The establishment of a State Annuity Fund has been under debate for some years. Philip Shier explains the arguments
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Country ReportAge of responsibility
The Pensions Ombudsman has warned pension fund trustees that they must understand their investment risks. Nyree Stewart assesses their evolving role
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Country Report
State eyes on the piggy bank
Ireland’s pensions reserve fund was seen as a success but now the government wants to raid its assets to refinance troubled banks, finds George Coats
