More comment – Page 76
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Opinion Pieces
WMD under fire
Brussels is set to regulate the over-the-counter derivatives market, but it could still be some time, perhaps years, before the European Commission achieves implementation of any legislative steps across the member states.
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Opinion Pieces
Con Keating, head of research, BrightonRock Group
The September edition of IPE contained articles on valuation, securities lending, collateral management and lessons from the financial crisis. Observations such as: ‘any exposure needs to be collateralised’ and ‘an aggressive move to daily margining’ set the tone but also brought to mind the Vietnam War era expression ‘collateral damage’.
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Opinion Pieces
Pensions re-think
As the drive to reform private pensions in the US gathers pace, features of the UK’s forthcoming personal accounts system – which includes mandatory automatic enrolment, prohibition of fund withdrawal and the mandatory annuitisation of benefits – could be adopted in the US. One of the US lawmakers pushing in this direction is George Miller, Democrat Representative for California, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.
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Opinion Pieces
“Is your pension fund a Sweden or a Colombia?”
Longevity is widely recognised as a key risk. Hewitt’s recent global risk survey, carried out in the fourth quarter of 2008, recognised that improvements in longevity appear high on the list of risk factors concerning companies – more so in the UK than equity market risk. But how many schemes ...
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Opinion Pieces
The pensions professor
Teresa Ghilarducci is one of the most watched economists and pension experts these days. She is the Irene and Bernard Schwartz Professor of Economic Policy Analysis and the director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York, and the author of the book ‘When I’m Sixty-Four: The Plot against Pensions and the Plan to Save Them’
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Opinion Pieces
AIFM: "Blood and guts"
The European Commission’s proposals for its Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) directive faces a tough time as it progresses through the European Parliament, and there could be blood and guts flying during hearings in the Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) committee.
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Opinion Pieces
Guest Viewpoint
Target date: “There is ample room for added value between one size-fits-all solutions and do-it-yourself approaches to long-term investment decisions”
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Opinion Pieces
Target date woe
Target date funds (TDF) are still the fastest growing investment option in US 401(k) plans. They have survived the recent hearings held jointly by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Labor (DOL), and the industry’s fear that they were going to be constricted by new heavy rules has waned. But investment companies and plan sponsors must better explain TDF risks to workers if they want to grow further.
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Opinion Pieces
A golden age
“Dealing with the impact of an ageing population in the EU,” a communication from the European Commission, kicks off with the joyful view that: “For the first time in history, the vast majority of Europe’s citizens are able to lead active, healthy and participative lives well into old age.”
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Opinion Pieces
Solvency II
The European Commission called representatives of the European pensions and insurance industry and member state officials to a public hearing in May to thrash out a harmonisation of solvency rules for cross-border company pension schemes (IORPs). But most attendees were not receptive.
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Opinion PiecesGuest Viewpoint
“The real goal of risk management is to give decision makers a more intimate understanding of their portfolio”
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Opinion Pieces
PBGC woes
What a difference nine months can make. At the end of last September, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) closed its fiscal year with a deficit of ‘only’ $11bn (€7.9bn) and its director Charles Millard was busy implementing his new “less conservative” investment strategy, under which the majority of the $55bn assets was to be shifted out of bonds and into riskier stocks and alternative asset classes.
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Opinion Pieces
Guest Viewpoint
“Seeing that the key to restoring stability lies with them, pension funds are a growing force for change”
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Opinion Pieces
Is the emperor wearing clothes?
Norman Chait argues that hedge funds should again perform their traditional role of providing genuine sources of non-correlated returns and downside protections
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Opinion Pieces
A stockpickers’ market
History suggests a good decade ahead for equities, but good stockpicking will enjoy handsome returns even in a stagnating market, argue Habib Subjally and Perry Winfield
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Opinion PiecesGuest Viewpoint
“If the PPF were to be overwhelmed by claims, the taxpayer would almost certainly end up paying”
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Opinion Pieces
University challenge
Even the ‘smartest’ money is suffering. US university endowments, the early adopters of alternative and esoteric investments, which were often recommended by their most brilliant alumni, are experiencing huge problems because of the market downturn and the illiquidity of those assets, compounded by the increase of expenses and the decline of revenues, including donations.
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Opinion Pieces
Physician, heal thyself
Are pension funds victims of the current financial meltdown or are they part of the problem?
