Asset Allocation – Page 169
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Features
The case for keeping it simple
Pension funds are doing well in solving disputes with their members, and they are even improving. This is the view of Dutch Pensions Ombudsman Piet Keizer. “There is a clear trend towards better information and dealing with members’ complaints. A growing number of funds have their own complaints’ schemes, which ...
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Pensionsfonds bright future
Aleading German pensions adviser, Richard Herrmann of consulting firm Heubeck, sees a strong future for German Pensionsfonds. The funds - Germany’s answer to the equity-oriented Anglo-Saxon pension fund - should double their assets every two years now that the government has boosted their competitiveness, he says. In implementing the EU ...
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Solidarity between generations
Communication between pension funds to their members is the best way of keeping the collective solidarity between the generations in an ageing population. “Communication and information of the pension funds to their members is paramount,” stated social affairs’ minister Aart Jan de Geus speaking at the ABP Rendez-vous. “It ...
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Don't bank on it
Portugal’s pensions landscape is subject to a two-tier domination by the main banks which provide their clients with a range of financial services, including pension management. According to figures from APFIPP, the Portuguese Association of Investment Funds, Pension Funds and Asset Managers, the Pension Funds market consists of around E14.9bn. ...
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Return to balanced?
Changing views in the pensions industry on the role of active management within portfolios has led to a rise in new balanced mandates, say consultants. But is it really best to use a single investment house for such a wide variety of different assets? Anthony Ashton, head of global client ...
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Emerging market debt: a maturing asset class
Investors should consider emerging market debt (EMD) as a key component of a diversified portfolio. Despite various crises during the 1990s, EMD has outperformed versus all other asset classes over the last ten years (see Table 1). And, because the asset class is more closely aligned to other risk assets, ...
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Smoke alarm at risk
In 1997 Deutsche Bank, the parent of the UK asset manager Morgan Grenfell (now Deutsche Asset Management) paid £220m (e322m) in compensation to clients of funds run by one of Morgan Grenfell’s managers, Peter Young, who had lost money on investments in unlisted companies, The bank was also fined a ...
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Actuaries' split personalities
Once upon a time, actuaries lived in an ivory tower, where they pored over complicated mathematical valuations…and they invariably came up with incontrovertible, well-founded and faultless opinions. They towered above the parties, influenced by no one, not even by their bosses. From time to time they explained to everyone who ...
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Active returns dominate
ABP Dutch fund ABP - the largest pension fund in Europe with assets of e180bn - has made sweeping changes in the way it runs its portfolio in the last three years. The portion of its equities that was run on an indexed basis - 45-50% - was reduced ...
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Ringing tone of success
As the bulk of the Greek pension system was mired in mismanagement and overregulation, the country’s incumbent telecoms operator, OTE, has stood out as a beacon of success with a cumulative return since the OTE pension fund started investing in 2002 of 26.37% with returns of 10% in 2003, last ...
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Maltese resurrection
After many years of an exclusively state operated pension system in Malta the occupational scheme seems to be set for a comeback. Company schemes existed in until 1979 but these were replaced by state provision when the government of the day decided that state provision should be good enough for ...
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Moving into mainstream
Emerging market debt (EMD) is an asset class that that encompasses sovereigns and corporates, high yield and investment grade and dollar as well as local currency instruments. Given this complexity, it is no wonder that market attention has only focused on the headline crises that have left deep-rooted prejudices within ...
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Uncertainties spawn hybrids
The shift from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) pension plan designs has been widely reported in the UK and further a field. However, a ‘pure’ DC scheme is not always possible and, even when it is, it is not always the ideal solution. To what extent are we ...
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Trying to get some space
During the campaign for February’s general election the then-opposition Socialist Party (PS) promised to cut taxes, raise public sector wages and increase pensions. The governing right-of-centre Social Democrat Party (PSD) was offering fiscal stringency. For a majority of the electorate the choice seemed obvious, and PS leader José Sócrates emerged ...
