Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 262
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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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Special ReportSmart beta and currencies
In currency markets there is arguably no beta, but risk-factor trading has a long history in the asset class
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Features
Focus Group: Smarter than the average beta?
Over half of the funds responding to this month’s Focus Group survey currently allocate to investments that employ smart beta concepts, with an average of 17.5% of their equity portfolio managed in this way. Nine funds are considering further allocations.
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Features
Diary of an Investor: No magic bullet
The good 2014 return of Wasserdicht’s Dutch fund was less down to asset allocation and mostly driven by high hedge ratios, writes investment director Pieter Mullen
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Country Report
Slow shift in perspective for Belgian pension funds
Having enjoyed good returns in 2014, Belgian pension funds are now seeking alternatives to bonds, writes Gail Moss
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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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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
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FeaturesHow we run our money: Publica
Carlo Svaluto Moreolo talks to Publica’s deputy CIO Patrick Uelfeti about the fund’s approach to asset management
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Interviews
On the record: What is your currency risk hedging strategy?
As investors worry over the fate of Europe’s economy and the effectiveness of the ECB’s quantitative easing programme, three European funds - PKA, PME and Pensionkasse SBB - share their views on currency risk management
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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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Opinion Pieces
Guest viewpoint: Sally Bridgeland - Avida International
“Looking beyond the UK may provide lessons on how maturing pension funds can rework investment governance”
