More comment – Page 61
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NewsShining a light on political lobbying
Investors have neglected companies' political lobbying practices for too long, says David Tozer.
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NewsSocially responsible investment: A fuzzy concept
Philippe Aurain lists four reasons why the usual definition of SRI is unusually slippery.
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News
When China sneezes... 2014
Beware complacency about the synchronising economics of the world at large, Martin Steward warns.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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News
Super funds: Financial supermarkets of the future?
Benjie Fraser wonders when Europe might follow in Australia’s footsteps.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Pension uncertainties
Social Security reform was notably absent from the 2012 US presidential campaign.
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NewsEquities: An active decade ahead for investors
AllianceBernstein's Patrick Rudden says the tide is on the turn for active equity investors.
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NewsHedge funds: What's wrong with a 0% return?
Judge hedge funds' diversification benefits by their optionality, not their risk/return.
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NewsUS elections: Polarising politics, heightened uncertainty
Could the election serve as a catalyst, uniting Washington into taking decisive action?
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NewsCorporate defined benefit pension funds are not all equal
Assessing the value of a pension plan in deficit with a weak sponsor company is no easy matter.
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NewsUS economy: On path to recovery no matter who wins
Former Clinton adviser says housing construction, chemical industry especially attractive.
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NewsPensions administration: Setting the record straight
Mark Kirpalani explains how digitisation can help pension funds cope with increased admin.
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Opinion Pieces
Joseph Mariathasan: The UK should set up a sovereign wealth fund
Britain faces the prospect of an ageing population with a consequent rise in its dependency ratio, and an economy in decline relative to the rest of the world.
