Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 638
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Features
Job market fugures confirm story
Our big picture for the global economy remains one of higher growth, with the US leading the global upturn. The US economy is changing for the better. Last quarter it grew at its highest pace since early 1984, with both capital spending and consumer spending posting big advances. The improvement ...
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Features
Equities to benefit from recovery
Short-term volatility will always feature in equity markets and should be expected. But overall, we believe that equity markets will maintain their positive trend in the months ahead because of the strength of improvement in economic and profits data around the globe. Not only has the US economy reported a ...
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Features
Why pressure is mounting on DB plans in UK
The last few years have seen troubled times for all involved with the management of defined benefit (DB) pension plans within the UK, with large numbers of employers either closing their DB plans to new entrants or shutting down their plans for future accrual altogether. Based on the National Association ...
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Features
Getting the pensions message across
Good communication is essential in the pension fund business, according to a panel of leading figures in the European pensions industry. Panellists at the third annual IPE Awards in Amsterdam agreed that communication with plan members was an important part of the job of a pension fund manager. And with ...
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Features
'Pension funds better investors than asset managers'
European pension funds should manage the core of their business internally, and outsource only the specialist areas of asset management to external managers. This is because pension funds understand their liabilities better than anyone else. Broadly, this was the conclusion of six managers in the pension industry when they debated ...
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Features
EU pensions tax issues 'an afternoon's work'
The European occupational pensions tax harmonisation question is just a technical one that could easily be solved, an eminent taxation expert Professor Gerry Dietvorst of Tilburg University told the Awards audience in a keynote address. The problem “can be solved in one afternoon by the ministers of finance”. He said ...
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Features
Waving the flag for funding
The idea for a pension fund for members of the European Parliament began on a paper tablecloth in an Athens restaurant. It was sketched by Richard Balfe and a fellow member of the European Parliament (MEP) Anthony Simpson. They felt that MEPs fared worse than their national parliamentary counterparts in ...
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Features
Burning at both ends
In essence there are two ways on investing in convertibles. One can buy a convertible outright and accept all the risks inherent within the instrument. The main risks are equity risk, for the bond may well convert into equity, credit risk, because as a debt instrument it is subject to ...
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Features
Moulding yourself to the system
As pension funds and investment firms come to rely more heavily on technology, they need to know how to get the best out of what can be a considerable investment. Part of the trick is making the right choice of system, but much can also be gained or lost in ...
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Features
EIORP step to pan-European funds
When the European Federation for Retirement Provision (EFRP) unveiled the original version of its linguistically challenging EIORP concept back in July 2000, the pan-European pensions directive was still something of a blocked pipe dream. The polemic strategy of Europe’s pension lobby group at the time reflects very much where we ...
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Special Report
Ethix in AP7 Fund deal
Swedish ethical consulting firm, Ethix, says it is about to sign a deal that will see AP7 and a number of other institutions take an approximately 50% stake in the firm. Ethix was formed this year after a number of staff left SRI consulting firm CaringCompany –Etikanalytikerna, which re-cently changed ...
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Special Report
Name change for CaringCompany
Nordic socially responsible investment consulting firm CaringCompany has changed its named to GES Investment Services. The company says the aim of the rebranding exercise was to strengthen the profile of the company for an international expansion effort. Managing director Magnus Furugård says the name change would give the firm one ...
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Special Report
New alpha sources
Three years of bear markets and growing pension deficits have significantly accelerated and intensified the institutional search for out-performance. It is somewhat perplexing, therefore, that one potentially robust – and growing – source of alpha has scarcely been examined – at least not in a disciplined, sophisticated, and widespread way. ...
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Special Report
The seven habits of highly effective pension funds
It seems like Steven Covey’s personal improvement bible “The 7 habits of highly effective people” has been on best-selling book lists forever. What if we changed the ‘people’ word in the book title to ‘pension funds’? What would become of Covey’s effective people habits like ‘be proactive’, ‘begin with the ...
