All articles by Maria Teresa Cometto – Page 8
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Opinion Pieces
Bankruptcy wave threat
A new wave of bankruptcies is set to put more pressure on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), the US pension agency that insures pension benefits of private pension plans covering some 44m of America’s workers and retirees. For fiscal year 2011, the PBGC has already reported a record $26bn (€19.8bn) deficit – the largest in its 37-year history and $3bn more than the $23bn deficit reported the previous year.
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Opinion Pieces
In the line of fire
The $225bn (€177bn) California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) used to be considered a leader in setting new trends, such as investing to improve companies’ corporate governance or to achieve environmental and social goals. But today it is in the line of fire, with critics pointing to its disappointing results and pushing for big changes.
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Opinion Pieces
Hedge funds face clip
Hedge funds enjoyed record inflows in 2011 as new assets from US pension funds poured into their coffers. But it was also a horrible year for their performance and investors put a lot of pressure on them for better terms.
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Opinion Pieces
Investing for impact
“When traditional investors look at impact investing they sometimes think they have to sacrifice returns. Fortunately, there are many examples of impact investing that lead to both competitive returns and positive social impact. In fact, it can be a very competitive field of investing activities versus mainstream assets,” says Scott Budde, head of the global social and community investing department at TIAA-CREF. This is why TIAA-CREF, with $440bn (€319bn) assets, has been involved in impact investing since 2006, and socially responsible investing since the 1980s.
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Opinion Pieces
Saving, the Texas way
Galveston County, Texas, is no longer famous solely for the hurricane that devastated the area killing an estimated 8,000 people in September 1908, the deadliest natural disaster ever to strike the US. Now the county is cited as an alternative ‘Texas’ model for fixing Social Security.
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Opinion Pieces
Consensus elusive
The US retirement system might change dramatically by year’s end; or pension reform could be postponed again until after the 2012 presidential election. Either way, the debate about how to prevent the bankruptcy of social security is hotter than ever.
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Opinion Pieces
Bonds defy downgrade
US pension funds are reassessing their fixed income investment policies after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the US rating from AAA, despite the fact that the new AA+ rating did not force them immediately to sell Treasury bonds.
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Features
Attention to themes for the long term
Alternative indices may still represent a small portion of the market, but could become much more important in future because they satisfy investor needs for stability and diversity beyond traditional indices. This is the conviction of MSCI, one of the largest providers in this industry, as Theodore Niggli, head of the index business at MSCI, explains.
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NewsItaly: A heartbreaker for pensions
Pensions industry could be sacrificed for short-term political gain, warns Maria Teresa Cometto.
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Country Report
Italy: The fiscal rubacuori
As Silvio Berlusconi struggles to maintain authority under a deluge of legal cases, his mandate has been undermined. Maria Teresa Cometto argues that the losers will be the economy and the pension industry as fiscal reform will be postponed in favour of achieving short-term political gain
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Opinion Pieces
A labour of love
This is a busy time for pension fund professionals in the US as they try to figure out the impact of new rules issued by the department of labor (DoL) on fee disclosure and fiduciary responsibility. Changes are likely to occur soon for plan sponsors, providers, investment managers, brokers, and advisers of 401(k)s and other defined contribution plans, which reached a record $4trn (€2.8trn) in total assets and 82m participants at the end of 2010, according to Plan Sponsor.
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Opinion Pieces
Making DC kings
Fidelity is still the king of the US retirement market, at number one among the defined contribution (DC) plans with over $940bn (€651bn) of assets in custody as record keeper at the end of 2010, 12% more than the year before. And there is not a traditional bank among the ...
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Opinion Pieces
Battle to stave off crisis
Andrew Cuomo is one of the most admired recently-elected state governors – primarily for his efforts to get the budget under control and bring taxes down.
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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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Opinion Pieces
Muni transparency
US lawmakers, investors and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are asking state and local administrations for more transparency about their pension liabilities. All are concerned that these liabilities are increasing the risk level of the $2.9trn (€2.1trn) of municipal bonds issued to balance local public budgets.
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Opinion Pieces
Hard target
Are target-date funds (TDFs) serving the needs of their participants? To answer this question, JP Morgan Asset Management carried out research comparing participants’ behaviour with the common industry assumptions that inform TDF design. The conclusion is that the latter should be more conservative than experts might think.
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Features
US success story
The Thrift Savings Plan serves as something of a prototype for NEST. It has widened pension participation and demonstrated good returns, reports Maria Teresa Cometto
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Opinion Pieces
Public vote for change
The Republic victory at the November elections has huge implications for public pension funds. The results are, in fact, supportive of reform to retirement systems that are threatening to bankrupt several state and local administrations. A few newly elected governors advocate moving towards a hybrid pension model where at least ...
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Opinion Pieces
A private equity rethink
At the end of a tumultuous decade, US public pension funds are re-evaluating their relationship with private equity firms. Disappointing returns, high fees and a number of scandals are pushing pension fund managers either to quit investing in this asset class or to take more control themselves. But no solution ...
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NewsEditor's choice: Social security reform spicing up mid-term elections in US
US – The campaign for the November mid-term Congressional elections is heating up in the US, and one topic raising temperatures is social security reform.
