All Opinion articles – Page 87
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Opinion
Nest: Our ethical strategy, and why talking to scheme members is crucial
Over the past 15 years the ethical consumer market has more than tripled in size, with consumers insisting on more ethical products and expecting higher standards from companies and their suppliers.
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Opinion
How to adjust your ESG strategy following the Law Commission report
In the latest edition of Technical Comment, Mercer’s Aled Jones defines a simple framework that trustees can use to help integrate environmental, social and governance factors into their scheme.
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Opinion
DC is getting worse before it gets better, in three graphs
The auto-enrolment army of (initially) low-contributing, apathetic savers has marched into the official data on pension contributions, demonstrating the uphill battle facing the industry to secure a decent retirement for today's savers.
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Opinion
Nodding heads: Are there any yes men around your trustee table?
It’s a Friday afternoon and a trustee board meeting is drawing to a close. Two legitimate options are on the table and a decision is imminent. Who takes the lead? Or more importantly… who nods their head and follows?
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OpinionEditorial: Over-filling your boots
There are a few areas of scheme management where trustees and the employer are in natural tension, and one of these is the matter of surpluses.
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Opinion
Osborne's guidance bill, a £2.5bn buyout and at-risk DC savers – a day in pensions
Here's your guide to an eventful day for the UK workplace pensions industry.
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Opinion
Do schemes fully understand their fixed income risks?
Aon Hewitt's Tim Giles, Hymans Robertson's Carl Hitchman, Law Debenture's David Felder, M&G Investments' William Nicoll and the Pension Protection Fund's John St Hill discuss the different types of fixed income risk in the second of this three-part panel discussion.
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OpinionDGFs: performance, charges and post-Budget DC
A panel of industry experts discuss current challenges for the diversified growth fund market and whether continued strong equity growth will threaten its popularity among UK pension funds.
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OpinionFixed income: the macroeconomy, credit risk and benchmarks
Five industry experts gather to discuss the current state of the fixed income market, and whether trustees are coping with monitoring risk and generating returns in today's macroeconomic environment.
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Opinion
How should you benchmark your manager?
In the final part of this three-part debate on fixed income, Aon Hewitt's Tim Giles, Hymans Robertson's Carl Hitchman, Law Debenture's David Felder, M&G Investments' William Nicoll and the Pension Protection Fund's John St Hill run through the different options for measuring the performance of a fixed income manager.
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Opinion
The DC Debate – how the UK stacks up against global DC
This quarter's debate puts the UK's retirement reforms in their global context, and compares the adequacy of this country's defined contribution schemes with that of other developed markets.
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Opinion
How is monetary policy uncertainty affecting fixed income?
As interest rates remain low, the fixed income market is struggling to remain attractive to investors. Aon Hewitt's Tim Giles, Hymans Robertson's Carl Hitchman, Law Debenture's David Felder, M&G Investments' William Nicoll and the Pension Protection Fund's John St Hill look at the effects of economic policy on the asset class.
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Opinion
A good problem to have? Dealing with scheme surpluses
‘Help, my pension scheme is in surplus’, is not a sentence commonly heard among trustees.
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Opinion
Why the equity market is some way short of a bubble
The years following the financial crisis have been a golden period for equity investors. Global equity indices are near all-time highs, following a prolonged period of extraordinary monetary stimulus, while global economic growth remains sluggish.
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Opinion
How to battle the key threats to your fixed income holdings
Pension schemes are a technology to defer wages until retirement age. Wage contributions are invested in a way to, at least, maintain purchasing power of earned income over time.
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Opinion
Could your scheme assets withstand a cyber attack?
In the event of an act of terror, pensions are likely to be the last thing on anyone's mind, but with senior experts recently predicting the "strong likelihood" of cyber attacks, what should schemes do to protect against the worst?
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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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Opinion
The 'illiquidity premium' is not quite the draw it was
Returns in so-called traditional asset classes have been squeezed over the past couple of years as so much liquidity has been pumped into the financial system by central banks.
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Opinion
Rapidly shrinking yields leave investors needing more complex mandates
Six years ago, at the start of the global financial crisis, it was simple to find attractive yields in fixed income.
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Opinion
Where's your scheme's invitation from David Cameron?
This morning's Financial Times led in print with the news that the Qatari royal family wants to invest in renovating the HS2 high-speed rail line hubs, and carried a telling line for institutional investors.