GERMANY – German pension funds and insurers are likely to increase their weighting to equities in the medium to long term, according to a survey by Heissmann Consultants.

“At the time of the survey, the 62% weighting in fixed income lay nearly 10% above the medium to long-term planning,” the Wiesbaden-based firm said.

“By contrast, the 10% weighting in equities and the six percent weighting in alternative investments both lay around five percent below the medium to long-term planning.

“The investors intend to reduce and increase these asset classes over the medium to long-term accordingly,” Heissmann said in a release.

The firm surveyed Pensionskassen, insurers, Contractual Trust Arrangements, Pensionsfonds - with more than 200 billion euros of investments - in the first quarter of this year.

And it found that German institutions are becoming more willing to change their asset managers.

“Despite an improvement in the overall level of satisfaction with their investment managers, the propensity of German institutional investors to change their investment managers has actually been growing,” the firm said.

One reason for this, it suggested, was the increasingly widespread use of the Master-KAG concept “which simplifies the provision of investment advice from external asset managers”.

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