All articles by IPE staff – Page 32
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Features
Policy ladder manages risks and helps funding
In July 2003, ABP introduced a new system of management of pension fund risk, the so-called ‘policy ladder’ (in Dutch ‘beleidsstaffel’). The initiation of the ladder led to two important adjustments in the pension plan: q The introduction of a set of explicit rules regarding the allocation of funding risks ...
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Features
Harmonised schemes offer fresh opportunities
Flexibility and freedom of choice are the key words in the new pensions and benefits system of French oil and chemicals sector giant TotalfinaElf. Coinciding with the Loi Fabius on pensions and savings, the newly-merged group was quick to act in setting out its vision for new harmonised supplementary schemes ...
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Features
Flexibility in matching pension liabilities
“Pension funds worldwide are in big trouble.” This bleak sentence starts a working paper on ‘How derivatives can help solve the pension fund crisis’, written by the Cass Business School1. Factors such as increasing life expectancy and changes in accounting rules have made it difficult for many pension fund managers ...
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Features
Fund of funds gives focus to private equity investment
ATP Private Equity Partners was set up two and a half years ago to manage the global private equity investments on behalf of ATP and SP, the Danish supplementary pension arrangements. ATP Private Equity Partners combines the private equity incentive and co-investment model with the long-term capital source from an ...
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Features
Seeking out security for employees
A very new fund, the Vodafone Pension Trust is a CTA that was only established in March 2003, sponsored by Vodafone Deutschland. Open to all 10,000 participating employees in Germany, it offers a defined benefit (DB) scheme plus an employee-financed defined contribution (DC) scheme for 1,500 active members, 800 retired ...
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Features
The right numbers for telecoms employees
With the establishment 12 years ago of its own pension fund management company, Fonditel Pensiones EGFP (Fonditel), telecoms group Telefónica claims to be the pioneer model of the new second pillar pensions industry in Spain. Fonditel’s mandate was to implement its own autonomous investment policy with the objective of ensuring ...
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Features
Focusing on customer service
The pension fund of ABP, Europe’s largest retirement plan, needs little introduction. A self-administered public pension fund for employers and employees in the government, education and defence sector, at year-end 2002 its customer base consisted of approximately 1.1m active participants, 700,000 inactive participants and 700,000 pensioners. The insured are employed ...
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Features
Swift-footed giant takes the crown
The 2003 IPE Awards European Gold Winner for best European Pension Fund, ABP, is that rarest of beasts – a giant pension fund that is quick on its feet. As the judges for the IPE Awards commented: “Still and despite being the largest and opinion leading European/Dutch pension fund, it ...
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Features
Information is a special duty for creator of web
The CERN Pension Fund – the fund of the European Organisation of Nuclear Research – was set up in 1955 to insure members, beneficiaries and family members against the financial consequences of disability and old age of members, and death of members and beneficiaries. CERN is a non-profit research laboratory ...
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Features
Quality services at an optimum cost
The London Pensions Fund Authority, set up in 1989, is one of the largest administrators in the UK of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). It has 73,000 members from this scheme, and includes more than 220 employers. As well as this, the LPFA operates nine agency administration contracts, covering ...
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Features
Committed to flexibility and customised pensions
Still the largest pension fund in the Netherlands, with over a million active members, 700,000 inactive members and 700,000 pensioners, ABP is the self-administered occupational pension scheme for the Dutch public sector. Aside from pensions, it offers disability and death benefits for survivors and dependants. ABP’s long-standing defined benefit structure ...
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Features
Reforming zeal of a big-picture man
If there is such a thing as a European pensions ‘time bomb’, then Frits Bolkestein, member of the European Commission responsible for Internal Market, Taxation and Customs Union, is one of the individuals most likely to help defuse it. This year’s IPE Award for Outstanding Industry Contribution goes not just ...
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Special Report
An SRI beast
Always a watcher of the latest trends, this Dark Beast is now considering establishing the Bête Noire SRI Fund, to fill a unique market niche. Being a heavy smoker, excluding tobacco companies doesn’t seem that attractive to this Beast. In fact smokers save money for the health service by shortening ...
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Features
Split model balances guarantee with growth
The fund was initiated jointly by the association of the chemical industry employers and the union of the chemical industry employees in Germany. Both associations still support the fund by promoting it among their members and both organisations send members to the supervisory board of Chemie Pensionsfonds. Financially, however, the ...
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Features
High dividend aspirations with a choice of styles
The objective of Länsförsäkringar Liv is to achieve the market’s highest dividend interest over the long term. Containing costs, along with achieving the highest possible risk-adjusted returns, are the keys to doing so. As the life insurance arm of the Länsförsäkringar group, it benefits from substantial economies of scale by ...
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Features
Alternative investments shifts efficiency frontier
In 2002 the Seventh Swedish National Pension Fund (AP7) added hedge funds and private equity to its portfolios. Prior to this decision, however, together with Watson Wyatt Investment Consulting, AP7 built a model that captures the key features of the Swedish pension system. In particular, the model takes into account ...
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Features
Keeping it simple, but also flexible
Founded by the parties negotiating the collective labour agreement for Denmark’s industrial sector, notably the Confederation of Danish Indsutry (Dansk Industri) and trades union cartel, Centralorganisationen af Industriansatte (CO), the Copenhagen-based Industriens Pension is a joint stock life insurance company, with all profits going back into the company as members’ ...
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Features
Diversified strategy aims to keep returns coming in
With a capital value of some €14.5bn in 2002 but with returns in decline, Finland’s llmarinen Mutual Pensions Insurance Company (Ilmarinen) is looking to incorporate structured products, derivatives and commodities into its investment strategy as a means of helping it achieve its main objective of ensuring the best possible long-term ...
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Features
Sound returns and efficient admin
The Victoria-Volksbanken Pensionskassen is a multi-employer pension fund offering DB and DC pension schemes. The administered plans are funded both by employer and employee contributions. With a capital value topping E308m at the end of 2002, its major shareholders are Österreichische Volksbanken, Victoria Volksbanken Versicherungs and ERGO International für Beteiligungen. ...
