All Investment articles – Page 64

  • News

    How can schemes make ESG compliance meaningful?

    2020-06-26T00:00:00Z

    Analysis: The UK pension industry’s first attempt at compliance with new sustainability reporting rules has left campaigners unimpressed, to say the very least.

  • News

    Lords’ climate amendment could dilute trustee power

    2020-06-25T00:00:00Z

    An amendment to climate risk provisions in the pension schemes bill could force schemes to align their investment strategies with the Paris agreement, going one step further than the government’s own provisions for reporting against sustainability criteria.

  • Opinion

    What role does culture play in value for money?

    2020-06-25T00:00:00Z

    Data crunch: ClearGlass’s Chris Sier shows that the best active funds are usually run by the lowest-cost managers, and asks whether fund houses’ readiness to provide data can be shown to be a sign of good net performance.

  • News

    Seven-year scam poses ‘serious questions’ for TPR

    2020-06-25T00:00:00Z

    The Pensions Ombudsman has finally brought to a close a seven-year case that left members of three pension schemes looking to recoup losses in excess of £14m. However, questions have been raised about the effectiveness of the Pensions Regulator in this case.

  • News

    Aviva strikes £150m buy-in with General Healthcare Group

    2020-06-22T00:00:00Z

    On the go: Insurer Aviva has secured a £150m buy-in contract with the General Healthcare Group & Life Assurance Plan.

  • News

    2020 set to be a record-breaking year for longevity swaps

    2020-06-22T00:00:00Z

    On the go: Demand for longevity swaps is expected to set new records in 2020, reflecting in part a slight slowdown in the bulk annuity market, according to a report by Willis Towers Watson.

  • News

    Are pensions the answer to UK’s £1tn infrastructure gap?

    2020-06-19T00:00:00Z

    A solution for the regeneration of Britain’s infrastructure could come from pensions, as superfunds could help plug the UK’s £1tn infrastructure gap. However, specialists believe it will be difficult for schemes to achieve the scale needed for these investments to be successful.

  • Opinion

    The £1bn myth: how scheme-level costs change with size

    2020-06-18T00:00:00Z

    Drawing together conclusions of recent articles, ClearGlass’s Chris Sier shows that merely making it past the magic £1bn does not automatically deliver scale benefits to members.

  • News

    Blow to investors as TPR rules risk further dividend drought

    2020-06-18T00:00:00Z

    On the go: New guidance from the Pensions Regulator could prolong the “dividend drought” currently hampering income investors, experts have warned.

  • Opinion

    Upside down: why trustees should be wary of unexpected outperformance

    2020-06-16T00:00:00Z

    Firing a shot across the bows of industry peers, Kempen’s Nikesh Patel argues that trustees should be sceptical of fiduciary managers delivering significantly greater returns than expected when times are good.

  • News

    Pandemics, climate change pose ‘systemic risks’ to actuarial work

    2020-06-11T00:00:00Z

    On the go: Global pandemics and the threat of a climate catastrophe present dire risks to the quality of actuarial work, according to a new report by the Joint Forum on Actuarial Regulation.

  • News

    London boroughs add real assets income fund

    2020-06-11T00:00:00Z

    On the go: The investment pool for London’s Local Government Pension Scheme partner funds has launched a new real assets fund aiming to steadily outstrip inflation, with seed money from the boroughs of Redbridge and Bexley.

  • News

    Fiduciary managers outperform during coronavirus crisis

    2020-06-10T00:00:00Z

    Analysis: A year after emerging from the scrutiny of the Competition and Markets Authority, fiduciary managers are now embracing transparency to advertise outperformance of traditional advised defined benefit schemes.

  • News

    Regulator to issue rules for consolidators ‘in the coming weeks’

    2020-06-09T00:00:00Z

    The Pensions Regulator is shortly to issue interim regulation covering commercial consolidators, Pensions Expert can reveal.

  • Opinion

    Economies of scale: do they exist?

    2020-06-09T00:00:00Z

    Data Crunch: Does size matter? ClearGlass’s Chris Sier digs into the asset classes that offer economies of scales to large or consolidated investors, and explores the possibility that size creates a cost drag in others.

  • Podcasts

    Podcast: 'Crystal ball-gazing' makes ethical investment tough for trustees

    2020-06-05T00:00:00Z

    Trustees aiming to make ethical investment decisions can find it tough to justify them without recourse to a crystal ball, as the legal requirements are ill-defined, says Irwin Mitchell’s pensions partner Penny Cogher. In this episode she’s joined by independent consultant and long-time pensions expert Malcolm McLean for a discussion covering capital-backed endgame deals, the complications of new insolvency laws, and some morally dubious LGPS investments.

  • News

    Lockdown spikes fears of democratic deficit in LGPS

    2020-06-05T00:00:00Z

    As the Covid-19 crisis unfolds, there could be a worrying governance and democratic deficit in some local authority pension schemes, with only 27 per cent of councils having virtual pension committee meetings.

  • News

    Brunel achieves carbon intensity reduction target

    2020-06-04T00:00:00Z

    Brunel Pension Partnership has achieved its target of reducing the carbon intensity of its active portfolio by 7 per cent a year in time for the UN’s World Environment Day, but smaller schemes saddled with pooled products may lack the clout required to emulate them.

  • News

    Suffolk holds firm through equity volatility storm

    2020-06-02T00:00:00Z

    Suffolk Pension Fund has reported a bounceback in its asset values after taking a £327m hit in the first quarter of the year, as experts said it is still legitimate for immature defined benefit schemes to lean on the equity risk premium.

  • News

    Railways scheme among DB backers in biomass plant acquisition

    2020-06-01T00:00:00Z

    On the go: The Railways Pension Scheme is among the defined benefit pension schemes behind the takeover of Sleaford Renewable Energy Plant in Lincolnshire, led by private equity company Greencoat Capital.