ITALY – Inarcassa, the 2.3 billion-euro association which provides pensions for self-employed engineers and architects, has named Alfio Di Grazia as general manager.

The appointment was announced in a letter to IPE from pension fund secretary Gianluca Caporiccio.

Inarcassa was founded in 1961 as a public body to provide for social assistance to engineers and architects and was privatised in 1995 maintaining its social objectives.

It is a non-profit association which guarantees social assistance and pensions for self-employed engineers and architects.

Inarcassa has more than 100,000 associates and about 45,000 contributors for mutual assistance to professional engineers and architects. Around half of the associates are not more than 40 years of age.

In 2002 the contribution revenues amounted to 416 million euros – while pension expenditure was 169 million euros.

Inarcassa’s Paolo Tosi said in a debate organised by IPE last year that internal managers were best suited to manage the core investments such as European equities and bonds.

He said: “The internal management of long term investments is around the strategic and tactical asset allocation. We are the only ones who personally know our liabilities. We are the only ones who know the needs of our associates, so we can balance and re-balance the asset allocation for the medium term.”