More comment – Page 64
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Opinion Pieces
Long-term Matters: Starting in their back yards
Foundations often exist to do public good. Their mission should be both to invest and provide grants. Protecting capital should be a priority; foundations do not need to be liability driven, have no reason to herd, and could use their long-term nature as a source of competitive advantage.
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Opinion Pieces
Chris Sutton, Towers Watson
Pension funds find themselves between a rock and the hard place as they struggle to provide for ageing populations in a tough investment climate. As a result of this, and of an inheritance of under-funding, retirement savings continue to attract media and public policy attention. Will pension funds be overcome by looming threats or seize the opportunity for change?
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from Brussels: A welcome day
You can almost hear the sound of satisfied occupational pension fund representatives rubbing their hands together at the news that the IORP II Directive has been postponement.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Taft-Hartley blues
Labour unions are not having the best time. Last month they suffered a major setback in Wisconsin, where Governor Walker won a recall election against union members and Democrats, who were protesting against his law removing most collective-bargaining rights from public employees. One reason why the unions lost is that those rights had assured very generous pension benefits to unionised public employees.
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NewsWhat protection does the AIFMD really provide?
The directive's goals are laudable, but the legislation misses the mark, says Michelle Carroll.
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NewsShareholder Spring? Not exactly
The 'Shareholder Spring' is welcome, but it's still only a minority of funds that are brave enough.
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NewsLess is more: A counter-intuitive take on manager diversification
Sometimes having fewer managers can actually improve risk/return alignment, says Patrick Rudden.
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NewsOpportunities in real assets
Aviva Investors explain the opportunities available through investment in real assets.
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Opinion Pieces
Long-term Matters: Shareholder Spring?
The recent AGM votes on executive pay at UBS, Barclays, Aviva and Citi are obvious signs of fundamental change, no?
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Opinion Pieces
Virginie Maisonneuve & Katherine Davidson, Schroders
“Maternity wards and primary schools in London are experiencing a spike in births, and retailers should benefit”
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from Brussels: HFT debate hots up
The debate in Brussels on high-frequency trading (HFT) is heating up. The main forum is the European Parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee (ECON), which in July will clarify its position with a vote.
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Opinion Pieces
Wisdom of independence
In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, independent US asset managers have increased their revenues and profitability more than the asset-management subsidiaries of the larger US financial institutions. Publicly traded asset managers posted median profitability of 35% last year, compared with 25% for subsidiaries, and grew revenues 15% during 2011, compared with 6% for subsidiaries, according to recent analysis from Casey, Quirk & Associate, a consultant to the global asset management industry.
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NewsLoosening the bonds: rethinking fixed income allocations
Charles Prideaux examines alternative investment approaches in a world of falling bond yields.
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NewsPensions regulation: A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down
Add governance to underfunding, and what do you get? Not Mary Poppins, says Benjie Fraser.
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NewsThe great Greek euro exit: Ready when you are
Europe's financial system may be as ready as it will ever be for an orderly Greek exit.
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NewsPeople power: Don't expect the politicians to tackle retirement
Harry Smorenberg argues that we ourselves are the biggest barriers to longer working lives.
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NewsHow to assess a pension fund's health
Mark Rowlinson describes the right way – and the wrong way – to assess a pension fund's health.
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NewsShout it from the rooftops: Cutting debt is the only way
The maths of compound interest have only one message for politicians – cutting is the only choice.
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NewsBetter late than never: Measuring the size of the UK DC market
Magnus Spence, director at Spence Johnson, finally has an answer to a question long ignored.
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NewsLongevity: Don't believe the hype
Con Keating and Dennis Leech explain how the IMF's latest warnings on longevity are misleading.
