Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 247
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Special Report
Room for smaller players in UK's 'oligopolistic' pension consulting market
Martin Steward finds that the age of true dominance of the UK’s ‘big three’ consultants may have passed, creating opportunity for smaller providers
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Country Report
Carrot and stick: Asset allocation under new FTK rules
New FTK rules require higher buffers but also allow funds to increase risk under certain conditions – Carlo Svaluto Moreolo writes about the dilemma of how to deploy capital in the current economic environment
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Features
ESG - Human Capital Management: Human, all too human
Non-financial risks generally centre on sustainability and governance. Now investors are looking closely at human capital management (HCM), according to Jonathan Williams
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Special ReportTactical asset allocation: When diversification is a better bet than timing
Practical difficulties of tactical asset allocation confirm the case for buying, holding and diversifying
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Interviews
Strategically speaking: Candriam
“It was difficult to find a name,” recalls Candriam CEO Naim Abou-Jaoudé, a year after Dexia Asset Management needed a rebrand for its acquisition by New York Life Investments. “All the good names are taken!”
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Special ReportInterview: James d'Ath, Indexx Markets
Indexx Markets’ James d’Ath talks about whether ‘smart alpha’ could strip out unwanted fund costs to deliver purified active management
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Country Report
FTK: Will the new rules change Dutch pension funds' attitude to risk?
Wichert Hoekert and Geert-Jan Troost discuss the recent FTK changes and how they may impact risk strategies in the Dutch pensions industry
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Country Report
Best hands on deck: The consolidation of Dutch pension funds
As industry consolidation shows no signs of slowing down in the Netherlands, Leen Preesman finds that the drivers go beyond cost reduction
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Special ReportSmart beta multi-factor portfolio construction: The tracking error factor
Dynamic risk allocation delivers the benefits of factor investing without the crippling tracking error risk
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Special ReportSmart beta: Smart enough for bonds?
Is smart beta more difficult to implement in fixed income?
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Special ReportSmart beta and fixed income: Here for the duration
Smart beta would appear to make a lot of sense in fixed income, but market peculiarities can add complexity to many of the resulting products
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Features
Peak big three
Journalists are used to receiving an email shortly after an interview in which the interviewee – or his PR reps – entreats them to tone down strongly-worded comments.
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Features
In search of a square circle
The Dutch are undertaking a major overhaul of their pensions system. ‘Again?’ you might ask. After all, the Dutch have been tinkering with their system for years, drafting and rejecting one daring redesign after another, while engaging in bickering over the best way to modernise and ‘future-proof’ their slightly outdated, second pillar.
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Features
From our perspective: Pensions and the black box
When the UK, Dutch and Swedish pensions ministers met in January, an odds-on bet is that they discussed their respective pension reforms. The proposed overhaul in the Netherlands involves the likely move away from the intergenerational ‘black box’ of an overly complex pension system. Conversely, the UK is trying to bring back a more palatable form of risk sharing with its plans for collective defined contribution (CDC) schemes, which are to be introduced in legislation currently before Parliament.
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Features
Analysis - Regulation: Swiss funds grapple with currency turmoil
It came as a complete surprise to all – 15 January 2015 will be burned into the memories of Swiss Pensionskassen for a long time. It was the day the Swiss National Bank (SNB) decided to cut the peg of the increasingly stronger Swiss franc to the ever-weakening euro.
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Features
Analysis - 2014 Returns: More luck than skill?
The past year will be remembered as one where economic performance diverged among the world’s key markets, with the US and the UK beginning to stabilise, and China and the euro-zone presenting growing cause for concern.
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Opinion Pieces
Long-term matters: Of herds and bubbles
There is much talk in the investment community of the long term and fundamentals. Yet behaviour remains rather short term in practice
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from Brussels: Bumpy road ahead
As far as investment is concerned, the EU faces a turbulent 2015. The efforts of Jean-Claude Juncker are central to arresting the EU economy from its zombie state.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Funding under pressure
Wall Street posted record highs in 2014 but this was not enough to compensate for other negative factors affecting US corporate pension plans. Their funding status dropped from 89% at the end of 2013 to 80% by the end of 2014, according to Towers Watson, and the pension deficit increased to $343bn (€303bn), doubling that of 2013. Overall pension plan funding fell by $181bn.
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Features
IPE-Fundo: UK Pension Indices
The new IPE-Fundo UK pension index series gives trustees and pension funds a reliable, transparent and free composite benchmark against which to assess the performance of their scheme
