All IPE articles in March 2015 (Magazine)
View all stories from this issue.
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Features
Analysis - 2014 Returns: More luck than skill?
The past year will be remembered as one where economic performance diverged among the world’s key markets, with the US and the UK beginning to stabilise, and China and the euro-zone presenting growing cause for concern.
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Features
Swiss Accounting Standards: Swimming against the tide
Some Swiss sponsors have ditched international standards in favour of local GAAP
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Features
PFPP survey: Delivery against objectives
In the first in a series of articles analysing the most recent reporting output of the Pension Fund Perceptions Programme, we assess how pension funds perceive their managers
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from Brussels: Bumpy road ahead
As far as investment is concerned, the EU faces a turbulent 2015. The efforts of Jean-Claude Juncker are central to arresting the EU economy from its zombie state.
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Features
ESG - Human Capital Management: Human, all too human
Non-financial risks generally centre on sustainability and governance. Now investors are looking closely at human capital management (HCM), according to Jonathan Williams
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Features
Asset allocation: Where next?
Against the current economic backdrop, trustees and investment committees are unsure which sources of return they should allocate capital to, Liam Kennedy writes
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Country Report
Hedging bets: Dutch pension funds re-think hedge fund allocation
PFZW’s liquidation of its hedge fund portfolio has been seen as a sign Dutch pension funds are cutting ties with the industry. But it’s more complex than that, according to Carlo Svaluto Moreolo.
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Country Report
Carrot and stick: Asset allocation under new FTK rules
New FTK rules require higher buffers but also allow funds to increase risk under certain conditions – Carlo Svaluto Moreolo writes about the dilemma of how to deploy capital in the current economic environment
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Special ReportTactical asset allocation: When diversification is a better bet than timing
Practical difficulties of tactical asset allocation confirm the case for buying, holding and diversifying
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Features
Asset Allocation: Fixed income, Rates, Currencies - The big picture
Getting the big picture right always helps and sometimes it makes subsequent investment decision-making blindingly obvious. But so often there seem to be diametrically opposed eventualities, with ambiguity everywhere. The dramatic fall in the oil price, for example, is creating plenty of puzzlement.
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Special ReportSmart beta hedge fund replication: Aping alpha
The first wave of hedge fund replication petered out nearly 10 years ago, but new approaches are reviving interest and allocations
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Special ReportBeta, smart beta, alternative beta: Extracting equity market risk
Those who criticise the smart beta concept suggest other ways to extract equity market risk
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Opinion Pieces
Viewpoint: Alternatives to the Holistic Balance Sheet
Wilfried Mulder and Niels Kortleve outline a two-step approach as an alternative for a harmonised solvency regime for IORPs
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Features
Analysis - Regulation: Swiss funds grapple with currency turmoil
It came as a complete surprise to all – 15 January 2015 will be burned into the memories of Swiss Pensionskassen for a long time. It was the day the Swiss National Bank (SNB) decided to cut the peg of the increasingly stronger Swiss franc to the ever-weakening euro.
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Features
UK annuity liberalisation: Challenge or opportunity?
Tiziana Perrella assesses the impact of annuity liberalisation on UK DB pension funds
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Special ReportSmart beta commodity indices: A smarter approach to commodity investing
Traditional commodity indices were problematic from the start, but fixing them without introducing greater complexity is easier said than done
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Special Report
Consultants and pension funds: When disagreements arise
Legal disputes between pension funds and their advisers are surprisingly rare – but, as Sally Ling discovers, this does not mean disagreements never arise
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Country Report
FTK: Will the new rules change Dutch pension funds' attitude to risk?
Wichert Hoekert and Geert-Jan Troost discuss the recent FTK changes and how they may impact risk strategies in the Dutch pensions industry
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Features
Focus Group: Smarter than the average beta?
Over half of the funds responding to this month’s Focus Group survey currently allocate to investments that employ smart beta concepts, with an average of 17.5% of their equity portfolio managed in this way. Nine funds are considering further allocations.
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Opinion Pieces
Guest viewpoint: Sally Bridgeland - Avida International
“Looking beyond the UK may provide lessons on how maturing pension funds can rework investment governance”
