All Investment articles – Page 94
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Features
Unilever refines DB and DC investment after review
Pension fund trustees at consumer goods giant Unilever undertook a review of the UK pension scheme's overall strategy last year and have implemented several changes across the defined benefit and defined contribution sections.
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Opinion
Fossil fuels: To divest or not to divest?
AllenbridgeEpic Investment Advisers’ Karen Shackleton looks at the arguments in favour and against divestment from fossil fuel companies.
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Features
Market effects of possible Brexit throw up investment questions
Analysis: Trustees must consider how growing uncertainty over the UK’s future in the European Union could hit their holdings, consultants have said, identifying both headwinds and opportunities en route to the referendum.
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Features
BMA hunts for yield with long-lease property
The British Medical Association Pension Scheme has invested in long-lease property since 2007, enabling the fund to 'smooth the ride' through long-term property cycles while securing a fixed income stream.
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Features
How pension schemes reacted to volatility amid a turbulent 2015
Analysis: Volatile markets and economic uncertainty drove pension schemes into multi-asset strategies and alternative assets in 2015, data show, as they looked to mitigate losses from equity markets.
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News
Industry concern over government's 'dangerous' ESG proposals
A proposal that would empower the government to intervene in local government pension investment decisions where they contradict British foreign policy has raised concern in the pensions industry.
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Opinion
Infrastructure projects: The potential and the risks
Michael Wilkins from Standard & Poor’s sets out the key risk factors investors should consider when choosing infrastructure projects.
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News
Behind the painted veil: How transparency influences retirement outcomes
The pensions industry must address conflicts of interest ingrained across its systems, delegates heard at the transparency symposium last week, as the Financial Conduct Authority clamps down on the asset management industry.
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Opinion
Corporate schemes shore up portfolios with fixed income and LDI allocations
Data analysis: UK corporate defined benefit schemes upped their allocations to fixed income in the last quarter of 2015, data show, as trustees took the opportunity to hedge out further risk by increasing liability-driven investments.
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Opinion
Investment lessons from DB
Talking Head: Defined contribution schemes could pool assets and risk to improve returns, says the Society of Pension Professionals’ Duncan Buchanan.
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Opinion
Define the measures of success before going in-house
Looking only at costs, using an in-house team for part or all of a pension fund’s investment activity is tempting, but cost is only one dimension of measuring success.
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Opinion
Understanding interest rates is key to assessing their impact
From the blog: Changes in interest rates, and more specifically bond yields, can have profound influences on defined benefit and defined contribution schemes, so it is important trustees understand how they work.
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Opinion
Should Britain’s pension schemes support the UK economy?
From the blog: UK pension schemes have no obligation whatsoever to help the national economy. Pension scheme trustees are legally bound to try and make investments that provide returns to pay pensions. And nothing more.
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Opinion
Speed dating for LGPS funds: How to choose your pooling partner
The government-imposed asset pooling of Local Government Pension Scheme funds forces committees to ask themselves on what basis they will choose pooling partners. Mercer’s Jo Holden gives tips on what schemes should focus on.
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News
PiP seedling poised to flower following FCA authorisation
The Pensions Infrastructure Platform has been authorised as an investment manager by the Financial Conduct Authority and is tipped by industry experts to be a top contender in fulfilling the role of “national infrastructure platform” for local authority schemes.
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Opinion
Skip the all-you-can-eat buffet in 2016
Monetary intervention, a commodity slump and the US dollar will all shape capital markets this year. BlackRock’s Ewen Cameron Watt says what asset owners need to focus on.
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News
Asset derisking could leave a funding gap
UK defined benefit pension schemes have removed nearly half of their funding level risk over the past decade, but new research has questioned whether asset derisking has gone too far.
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News
Testing market conditions greet 2016
Market volatility is here to stay, experts have said, urging defined benefit trustees to assess their risk management frameworks and eliminate unintended exposures as the year kicks off.
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News
Low for longer (but longing for higher) rates
Analysis: The US Federal Reserve’s decision on Wednesday to push rates up may mark the end of an era, but investment experts say UK pension funds should expect little more than a small amount of volatility as a result.
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Features
The top 5 DC stories from 2015 reflect a challenging year
Year in Review: It was a massive year for defined contribution, with new pension flexibilities, the subsequent government guidance promise and of course the charge cap to contend with.