Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 278
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Features
Cutting a tranche of yield
The current levels of default risk and the ability to tailor exposures to portfolio requirements make CLOs and CDOs potentially attractive for pension funds, writes Geoffrey Randells
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Features
Hot topics
IPE’s overview of the main regulatory and legislative developments affecting workplace pensions in key European countries
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Features
Let’s be clear on solutions
The growing number of services marketed to UK DB pension funds as ‘solutions’ means it is time for clear definitions, believes Magnus Spence
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Special Report
Smart beta: Smart investing or smart trading?
There are limited ways to explain the excess returns that smart beta generates over the market portfolio. Martin Steward uncovers a world of contention over which are the most important
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Special Report
Smart beta: The battle for the middle
Smart beta has succeeded because it can help solve not one but two important problems, writes Emma Cusworth. But investors need to be clear about which problem they are solving
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Special Report
Smart beta: Lend to those that don't need it
Mike Story offers the case for taking the smart beta concept into the world of bonds
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Special Report
Smart beta: Neither 'smart' nor 'beta'
John Velis offers the case against taking the smart beta concept into the world of bonds
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Special Report
Smart beta: The nirvana of equity investing?
Low turnover, low fees, repeatable and testable rules and an avoidance of concentration in the biggest stocks make the smart beta idea compelling, concedes Matthew Beddall. But none of that can make a great-looking backtest into reality
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Features
Always the season for corporate governance
Before the start of the 2014 AGM season it’s time to review that infamous voting season – the so-called Shareholder Spring of 2012.
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Features
The Canada factor
If only our pension funds could be more Canadian – which is to say, large, well-governed institutions that are prominent and successful investors. Canada has these in spades, counting among its ranks four of the top 20 biggest global real estate investors and also four of the top 20 infrastructure investors respectively.
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Features
Better governance – to what end?
Before Gordon Gekko launches into his “Greed is good” speech, the CEO of Teldar Paper harangues him as the face of the “short-term profit, slot machine mentality of Wall Street”. But Gekko isn’t like the high-frequency traders or quarterly earnings-obsessed benchmark huggers whom we tar with that brush.
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Features
Spread wealth with caution
Back in the days when the roar of Ireland’s Celtic tiger economy echoed across Europe and the wider world, the country was widely praised for its foresight in 2001 when it created a sovereign fund, the National Pension Reserve Fund, with the proceeds of the sale of Telecom Eireann.
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Features
De-risking poised for growth but risks remain
Consultants’ hopes that the UK de-risking market would rebound in 2013 appear to have been fulfilled. This follows an underwhelming 2012 during which transaction volumes fell by a half.
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Features
ATP challenges sales tax rules at ECJ
The debate over whether services to occupational pension schemes should be subject to value added tax (VAT) is a familiar one within the industry. Three cases have now found their way to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
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Features
On the horizon
In the first of a two-part round-up, Stephen Bouvier asks leading pensions accounting experts to identify the IAS 19 issues to watch in the year ahead
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Opinion Pieces
Long-term critics
The European Commission’s report on responses to its consultation paper on long-term investing looks to be at least six months late. But don’t imagine the debate has gone away. The issue is likely to re-ignite in Brussels in the coming months after the Commission produces its assessment this quarter.
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Opinion Pieces
Time to face facts
The Detroit bankruptcy ruling and the new bookkeeping rules from the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) could trigger a wave of changes for the US state and local pension funds this year. Government leaders struggling with budget problems, bondholders that lend money to municipalities and states, and unions that negotiate pension benefits all have to deal with the impact.
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Opinion Pieces
Jerry Moriaty, CEO and Director of Policy at the Irish Association of Pension Funds
“While Ireland begins to show signs of economic improvement, it is clear there are still a lot of unresolved issues in the pensions sector”
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Features
National benefit calculation
When they came under criticism, Canada’s top 10 pension funds hired blue-chip consultants to find out what they contributed to the national economy, Christopher O’Dea writes
