Pension System – Page 303
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Country Report
Austria: The long wait
Barbara Ottawa reports on why Austria is still waiting for an amendment to the law on Pensionskassen and what the industry is doing in the meantime
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Country Report
Germany: Could do better
Norman Dreger reviews Germany’s position in the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension index and outlines areas for improvement
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Country Report
Germany: A market dominated by providers
Pensionsfonds are established in the German occupational pension market yet bureaucratic hurdles hamper further development, write Alfons Schwarz and Ralph Rost
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Country Report
Germany: Rise and fall of funded pensions
Funded schemes for German civil servants are drawing criticism – for investment policies, low contributions or because they are being discontinued in many cases. Barbara Ottawa reports
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Country Report
Germany: Liberal tradition
Versorgungswerke, the odd ones out in the German funded pension system, are a successful model of funding first pillar pensions. Barbara Ottawa reports on the critical factors
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Interviews
Is climate change integrated in your portfolio?
Implementing climate change in the portfolio
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Country Report
Germany: Where churches lead, others can only follow
Germany leads in clean energy and has a good environmental record in areas like recycling. Yet it remains a laggard in sustainable investing. Nina Röhrbein asks why
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Features
Structural importance
Although not a legal necessity, committees are important to the efficient running of pension schemes. Gail Moss looks at their requirements and role
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Features
Leader of the pack
Nina Röhrbein spoke with Giorgio Valzolgher, managing director at Laborfonds, the not-for-profit pension fund that any employee in Italy’s Trentino-South Tyrol region can join
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NewsAustrian roundup: ECJ gender ruling, arithmetica, FMA
AUSTRIA – Mandatory second pillar would be 'feasible way' to fill pension gap after ECJ gender ruling.
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NewsOECD criticises insufficient pension reforms
Report pins hope on old-age employment, as working age population is set to decline 10%.
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NewsAustrian severance pay funds return 2.6% in 2010
AUSTRIA – Assets in mandatory system grow to €3.6bn from €2.8bn in 2009.
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NewsAustrian roundup: Valida, VBV, VVP
AUSTRIA – Valida Pensionskasse reports 5.1% return for 2010, below the Austrian average of 6.6%.
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Country Report
Belgium: KBC Pensioenfonds prepares for accounting rule changes
The pension fund of Belgian bank and insurance group KBC has returned to pre-crisis levels following 2010 returns of 9.42% for the DB and 6.52% for the DC scheme, leaving the scheme with a short-term, liquidation scenario funding level of 147% and a long-term funding level of 113%, up 8% ...
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Country Report
Belgium: Pension B looks to real estate and tactical asset allocation
Before the Vandenbroucke law came into force in 2004, the Belgian construction sector distributed some of its reserves to its retiring ex-workers. However, this practice did not conform to the new OFP (organisation for financing pensions) system, leading to the creation of the new sector pension fund, Pensio B, in ...
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Country Report
Belgium: Pensioenfonds UZ Gent: Diverse benchmarks
The UZ Gent pension fund, founded in 1995, is unique in Belgium in that it does not provide a second pillar supplementary pension, but replaces the legal first pillar pension for civil servants employed at the University Hospital Ghent. Employees with a normal labour agreement cannot join the scheme.
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Country Report
Belgium: GDF Suez/Belgian gas and electricity pension funds re-assess euro government bond exposure
These five pension funds – comprising a total of 20,000 members – cover GDF Suez Belgium, the Belgian entity of GDF Suez, a global independent power generating company, and other companies from the Belgian gas and electricity sector.
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Special Report
Europe's Pension Consultants: For better or worse
Consultant monogamy is still widespread in Germany, but faithfulness does not mean fiduciary management, finds Barbara Ottawa
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Special Report
Europe's Pension Consultants: New wine in old bottles?
Brendan Maton asks whether fiduciary management is really a new advisory structure, or just a new charging structure
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Country Report
The Netherlands: United in face of challenges
The financial crisis triggered closer co-operation between the three Dutch pension fund organisations. In November last year the Pension Federation became the single external voice of all 550 Dutch pension schemes, as director Gerard Riemen, explains to Leen Preesman
