More comment – Page 61
-
.jpg)
NewsEuropean distressed: Myth or reality?
Is it a myth attractive returns cannot be generated in the current environment?
-
Opinion Pieces
Heinz Rudolph, Lead pension specialist, World Bank
Between 1997 and 2008, 11 countries in central and eastern Europe (CEE) implemented multi-pillar pension reforms, which involved the creation of mandatory funded schemes. These reforms were motivated by a foreseeable reduction in future pension contributions and extended benefit payments as a result of falling birth rates and people living longer.
-
Opinion Pieces
Letter from Brussels: Enforcement problems
Enhancement to the EU’s successful UCITS legislation for cross-border collective investments is now underway. But there are nagging concerns that whatever the outcome for UCITS V, the good work could be undone by member states and their judicial systems failing to enforce common rules.
-
Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Back from the edge
If there was a clear message from the whole ‘fiscal cliff’ debate, it is that social security will be affected sooner or later. Employees need to realise that company-sponsored pension plans will become an even more important supplement to their retirement income.
-
NewsThe big question: Has the wave of ultra-loose monetary policy crested?
Charles Prideaux explores what might happen if governments begin to abandon their QE policies.
-
NewsThe growing importance of transparency
Australia may well be ahead of the game when it comes to pensions governance, say Benjie Fraser.
-
NewsThe IORP Directive: A new boss
Brussels is about to announce the appointment of a key decision maker for pension regulation.
-
NewsShining a light on political lobbying
Investors have neglected companies' political lobbying practices for too long, says David Tozer.
-
NewsSocially responsible investment: A fuzzy concept
Philippe Aurain lists four reasons why the usual definition of SRI is unusually slippery.
-
News
When China sneezes... 2014
Beware complacency about the synchronising economics of the world at large, Martin Steward warns.
-
Opinion Pieces
Let’s measure advisers
Investment consultants are so easy to blame. But on ESG matters, they are now doing some very important work – perhaps a result of prodding in earlier years. Now it’s time to reward consultants for faster progress and help them become the powerful facilitator for sustainable investing that they could be, and also help their leaders deal with the immunity to change that they face.
-
Opinion Pieces
Carl Hitchman, Partner, Hymans Robertson
You have decided that fiduciary management is for you. How then do you go about choosing a suitable manager? While most consultants and managers have been advising on and managing assets for many years, they now overlap in terms of these capabilities, which poses additional challenges. How are fiduciary managers meeting these challenges and structuring themselves to provide clients with the confidence to appoint them?
-
Opinion Pieces
A dozen reasons to be hopeful
The Chinese word for crisis has two characters – ‘danger’ and ‘opportunity’. Holding apparently contradictory ideas together is not easy. So here are 12 reasons to be hopeful in 2013.
-
Opinion Pieces
Letter from Brussels: Soup-kitchen future?
There are increasing forecasts of widespread poverty for Europe’s pensioners in future decades. For a start, there are the 60m citizens in the EU who do not have an occupational scheme. Longevity combined with feeble returns on investment, plus millions of young, non-contributing unemployed people, support the forecast of misery.
-
Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Battle of the benefits
Obama’s healthcare reform will be the biggest new law affecting US companies in 2013. But will it have an impact on pension funds? Healthcare and retirement benefits are managed separately, but a change in costs for the former will eventually affect the latter.
-
News
Super funds: Financial supermarkets of the future?
Benjie Fraser wonders when Europe might follow in Australia’s footsteps.
-
Opinion Pieces
Amin Rajan: 'Pension funds demand discipline, but discipline can stifle hedge funds' creativity'
First, the good news: assets under management in hedge funds have not only surpassed their previous peak of around $2trn (€1.6trn) reached in 2007, but they are also likely to attract another trillion dollars by 2016, according to ‘Institutional Investment in Hedge Funds’, a survey by Citi Prime Finance.
-
Opinion Pieces
Long Term Matters: A preventable surprise
The world has been hit recently by a tsunami of corporate disaster. Then came the LIBOR scandal.
-
Opinion Pieces
Letter from Brussels: Deaf ears for EC claims
Summer 2013 might be some way off but it is when the European Commission intends to publish its proposals for IORP II. And signs from the Commission are that the usual procrastination is no longer intended.
-
Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Pension uncertainties
Social Security reform was notably absent from the 2012 US presidential campaign.
