All Investment articles – Page 106
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Opinion
How to run a beauty parade to find the best adviser for your scheme
Any other business: The time comes when every scheme needs to hire new advisers. But in an industry with such a diverse range of skills, how can you be sure you are hiring the right one?
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News
Secondhand annuities could offer DB funds income, but pricing tricky
The pensions minister’s proposal to allow retirees to cash in annuities could suit defined benefit schemes eager to access the resultant long-term cash flows, but pricing “secondhand” annuities could be a sticking point.
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Opinion
How the DB code’s employer growth objective affects scheme funding
In a world where just one in five UK sponsors have a ‘strong’ covenant, Spence’s Marian Elliott explains how trustees of such schemes can strike the balance between an appropriate investment risk strategy and reliance on employer contributions.
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News
Berkshire makes co-investments to profit from food supply chain
The Royal County of Berkshire Pension Fund has announced investments in the global food and water supply chain, with a private equity mandate investing in two US start-ups driving sustainable consumption.
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Opinion
Five entirely depressing findings from the DC charges audit
If the workplace pensions industry should be judged by how it treats its existing customers, then today's revelations on scheme charges find it at best unfair and at worst extortionate.
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Opinion
Nationwide, Strathclyde and British Coal among top five 2014 investment stories
Ditching hedge funds, the rise of responsible investment and the growing success of property mandates have all featured in a tricky year for UK pension fund investment.
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Opinion
Does your scheme lack a 2015 strategy?
Any other business: Most schemes lack a set strategy for the new year, governance experts say, as the industry turns its attention to the challenges of the next 12 months.
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Opinion
Nest: Our ethical strategy, and why talking to scheme members is crucial
Talking head: Paul Todd, assistant director of investment at the UK’s state-sponsored pension scheme, explains how its ethical fund is constructed to deliver an appropriate strategy for its members.
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News
How stewardship has moved up the scheme investment agenda
As many as four out of five UK pension funds now screen their managers for stewardship activity as part of the selection process, demonstrating the growth in environmental, social and governance considerations among institutional investors.
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Opinion
Why the equity market is some way short of a bubble
JP Morgan’s Patrik Schöwitz looks at the value in global equity markets, and argues that a “golden period” for the asset class is not on the verge of becoming tarnished, in the latest edition of Informed Comment.
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Opinion
How to battle the key threats to your fixed income holdings
In the latest edition of Technical Comment, Natixis’s Olivier de Larouziere argues that pension funds’ asset allocations will have to adapt to a “lower-for-longer” environment on interest rates.
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News
Managers predict cash will be king for many post-April retirees
It may be a caravan rather than a Lamborghini, but scheme managers across the country are getting ready for a wave of savers cashing in their pension pots come April’s introduction of George Osborne’s retirement flexibilities.
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OpinionEditorial: Just around the corner
The level of calm within a given pensions department ahead of the advent of the new pension freedoms is probably related to how well you know your scheme membership.
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News
Nest to switch TDF goalposts from annuity purchase as April looms
DC: The New Investment Journey. Nest is planning to amend its target date funds that currently aim for annuity purchase in light of the greater flexibility in retirement options available to scheme members from April 2015.
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News
Surrey sets up trigger-based framework for £90m gilt repo move
The £2.9bn Surrey County Council Pension Fund has set a framework to buy leveraged gilts upon hitting inflation and interest rate triggers, as part of a wider move into liability-driven investment.
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Opinion
The ‘illiquidity premium’ is not quite the draw it was
In this week’s edition of Technical Comment, PIC’s Mark Gull argues there are “large caveats” to the illiquidity premium that is available through such investments as infrastructure debt.
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Opinion
Rapidly shrinking yields leave investors needing more complex mandates
Talking head: Redington’s Rob Gardner turns his attention to pension funds’ fixed income allocations and how to answer their hunger for yield.
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Opinion
Gilts present pathetic value. What are the alternatives?
Henderson’s Kevin Adams looks at how to protect your scheme from capital loss and prosper in a rising rate environment, in the latest edition of Informed Comment.
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OpinionEditorial: Breaking down a door
There used to be the cult of UK equity. Pension funds were to invest in their home country’s businesses so the accrued capital of workers’ retirement holdings was reinvested into capital-creating entities, driving growth and producing return.
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News
Unilever swaps asset allocation approach to focus on outcomes
Consumer goods giant Unilever's pension fund has adopted an outcome-led investment approach split into five key objectives, jettisoning its previous focus on asset allocation in a bid to avoid short-termism.