All Features articles – Page 28
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Features
South Yorks ups property, EMD and high-yield in search for returns
South Yorkshire Pension Fund has increased its allocation to property and placed greater emphasis on emerging market and high-yield debt as it searches for greater balance between risk and returns.
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Features
Hunting yield in an unpredictable fixed income market
A slump in government bond yields has caused some defined benefit schemes to delay derisking and look for greater returns in more volatile assets.
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Features
EE ditches gilts for absolute return as institutions hunt yield
The largest UK mobile group’s defined benefit pension scheme is removing a set allocation to index-linked gilts in favour of absolute return bonds and hedge funds, the latest institutional investor to reset its portfolio in a hunt for value.
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Features
HSBC plans cash lifestyle default for ex-DB members
HSBC Pension Scheme plans to default members of its defined benefit section to its cash lifestyle fund following the closure of the section in July next year, as part of a wider post-Budget review of its defined contribution arrangements.
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Features
SABMiller to offer pension-plus savings options after 20% opt out
NAPF Annual Conference 2014: Drinks company SABMiller will launch additional savings vehicles after one in five workers opted out of its UK defined contribution scheme, with reductions in tax relief a principal factor.
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Features
Warburtons kicks off three-pronged comms strategy
NAPF Annual Conference 2014: Warburtons, the UK’s largest bread baker, has this year launched the first of a three-part plan to boost engagement among a new swath of pension savers.
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Features
Hillingdon targets equity dividends, looks to lock in gains
London Borough of Hillingdon Pension Fund has shifted its equity portfolio away from UK holdings and towards unconstrained strategies, but the move has so far failed to perform.
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Features
Imerys consults on ceasing DB accrual after merger
Mineral specialist Imerys is undertaking a consultation to cease accrual in its defined benefit pension scheme, following the completion of a scheme merger earlier this year.
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Features
Hyde Group uses employees to design flex bens
Housing provider Hyde Group has set up a flexible, employee-designed system for scheme members to access their benefits, in a drive to retain and attract talent.
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Features
Tyne and Wear switches PE benchmark to limit relative volatility
Tyne and Wear Pension Fund has switched to using an absolute return benchmark for its private equity investments in a bid to reduce the relative volatility of returns.
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Features
Study: poor alts benchmarking hides £1.1bn of underperformance
A report released today finds that inappropriate benchmarks used by local authority pension funds and their advisers for alternative investments have artificially flattered performance, with its authors blaming a governance failure in the sector.
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Features
BAE sees four in 10 agree to give up pension increases
BAE Systems Pension Scheme has experienced a 38 per cent take-up of a pension increase exchange offered to pensioner members, in an exercise to reduce its inflation risk.
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Features
SME to auto-enrol nine months early to ease process
Nutrition provider Dr Schär UK has completed preparations to begin auto-enrolment in January, nine months ahead of its staging date, in order to ease its reporting and payroll processes.
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Features
British Coal latest to unwind hedge funds, putting trust in property
The British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme is unwinding its hedge fund holdings and increasing its property, the latest high-profile fund to drop an asset class beset by fee and transparency concerns.
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Features
Nationwide builds inflation hedge, ups matching assets to derisk
Nationwide Pension Fund has reduced its exposure to return-seeking assets and carried out its first significant inflation hedge, as capital adequacy rules drive banking and building society sponsors to reduce funding volatility.
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Features
The Pensions Trust to open doors to private sector DB as employers outsource
The Pensions Trust plans to start accepting private sector employers into the scheme from late October, hoping to attract the growing number of small and medium-sized companies outsourcing the management of defined benefit schemes.
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Features
Somerset and Devon tighten shared admin strategy to boost employer comms
Somerset County Council Pension Fund and Devon County Council Fund will establish a formal administration strategy in order to improve communication between the schemes and its participating employers.
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Features
Westminster moves towards global equities to free up managers
The City of Westminster Superannuation Fund has decreased its UK equity holdings in favour of global stocks to give managers greater flexibility and boost performance.
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Features
USS revamps covenant assessment model in face of funding challenge
The Universities Superannuation Scheme has opted for a more thorough covenant assessment due to changes in higher education funding and an expected increase in its deficit from this year’s triennial valuation.
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Features
Diageo tips into matching assets after hitting trigger
Diageo Pension Scheme has switched 5 per cent of its assets from its growth to its matching portfolio after hitting a derisking trigger, tipping its investment balance towards holdings that track liabilities.