All articles by Martin Hurst – Page 8
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Features
Working within constraints
Norway’s pension funds are highly regulated, at least as far as funding and investments are concerned. Kjell Taftø, managing director of the Trondheim Kommunale Pensjonskasse, says that the need to produce an minimum annual level of return restricts investment freedom. “I would like to see fewer regulations, particularly in the ...
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Features
Too local for comfort
At the Novartis Pensionskasse, one of Switzerland’s leading pension institutions, the mood for risk is muted. Exposure to equities was reduced from 31% at the end of 2002 to 16% a year later; the target for this year is 20%. “The markets are still rather over-valued,” says Gino Pfister, pension ...
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Features
Plus ca change
One of the aims of arranging that the first four of the six AP buffer funds in Sweden have the same initial strategy was that putting the eggs in four baskets was considered less risky than putting them all in one. Three-and-a-half years on, a study published by the ministry ...
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Features
Bucking the trend
On average pension funds in Sweden allocate 55% to 60% to equities, making them somewhat more risk friendly than some of their counterparts in continental Europe. But where the funding position is more comfortable, it seems that funds will happily move towards a more conservative position. An example of such ...
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News
France’s Pro-BTP eyes new scheme
FRANCE – Construction industry scheme Pro-BTP is in the process of setting up new forms of savings based on the principle of capitalisation.
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News
German pension reforms boost intermediaries
GERMANY - Industrie Pensions-Verein, which provides pension services for small and medium-sized companies of up to around 500 employees, saw its client base increase by about seven percent last year to over 350,000.
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Features
Shaking off the peer group
One of the main distinguishing factors of Irish pension funds is that they have been and to a lesser extent today continue to be heavily invested in the domestic equity market. This is not so unusual in itself, of course, except that investing up to 30% of one’s portfolio in ...
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Features
A day at the races
While many larger, unionised companies in Ireland have maintained their defined benefit (DB) schemes, privately-owned building firm John Sisk & Son took action to shift the risk element towards its staff – well in advance of the recent stock market turmoil. The company runs two DB schemes: the executive scheme ...
