Pensions Week articles from February 2007

Pensions Week archives from February 2007

News: Mortality assumptions could double deficits.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Daniel McAllister Wildly varying scheme funding assumptions could nearly double the UK private pension black hole to GBP100bn at a time when employers are looking to cut contributions to avoid trapped surpluses, PW can reveal. ...

News: Government wastes GBP12bn worth of provision in a year.
February 5, 2007... The government squandered over GBP2bn of state benefit provision in 12 months through fraud and error, a report by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) found. The figures issued by the Office of National Statistics reported around...

News: Schroders beefs up multi-asset solutions team.
February 5, 2007... Schroders has bolstered its multi-asset business with the appointment of Paul Duncombe as global head of strategic solutions and Johanna Kyrkland as head of UK multi-asset. Internally, Schroders has also recruited Gareth Henry and David...

News: Union gives hope to WHSmith.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Ryan Harrison Members of the beleaguered WHSmith pension scheme have been thrown a lifeline after a union proposal offered a chance to keep the scheme alive. The high street retailer laid out proposals last month to close its...

News: PPI concerns over pensions bill.
February 5, 2007... The government's proposed pensions bill has been met with fresh concerns from the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) over its potential to over complicate rather than solve existing state pension problems. The bill, which is under scrutiny in...

News: Funds fail to recoup overpaid commission.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Gill Wadsworth A collapse in enthusiasm for commission recapture could cost pension schemes millions of pounds as brokers and providers pull out of the market, and funds fail to claw back overpaid fees. Amid significant change...

News: Aberdeen proposes global fund for smaller companies.
February 5, 2007... Aberdeen Asset Management plans to launch an emerging markets smaller companies fund to meet client demand for exposure to this asset class. The Aberdeen global-emerging markets smaller companies fund, a sub-fund of Aberdeen global, will...

Letters.(Letter to the editor)
February 5, 2007... Pensions Week's front page story last week, 'PPF faces spiralling costs after ECJ ruling', which stated the ruling 'threatens to derail the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) within two years', was not only misleading but could cause unnecessary...

News in Brief: UBS wins GBP49m mandate.
February 5, 2007... The GBP879m North Yorkshire Pension Fund has appointed UBS Global Asset Manage- ment to run a GBP49m global tactical asset allocation (GTAA) mandate. The fund's long-term strategic asset allocation remains in place, but North Yorkshire's...

News in Brief: Harrison joins synesis.
February 5, 2007... Bespoke buyout firm Synesis Life has strengthened its actuarial business with the appointment of Daniel Harrison as a senior pension actuary. Harrison joins from Watson Wyatt, where he has over 17 years' experience advising companies and...

News: Sipp providers: only one in ten are FSA registered.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Hannah Williams Up to 90% of self-invested personal pension (Sipp) providers have less than two months to register with the Financial Services Authority (FSA), leading to speculation small operators could abandon operations. ...

News: Standard Life fund has equity injection.
February 5, 2007... Standard Life has launched a GBP334m UK property development fund following equity input worth GBP167m from institutional investors. The fund has three development projects under offer with the eventual aim to increase this to between five...

News: Gold prices have the magic touch.
February 5, 2007... The price of gold rocketed in 2006 with of one of the biggest annual gains in 20 years, investment managers reported. According to Clerical Medical, the price of the commodity shot up by 24% last year, and has more than doubled in value in...

News: Overlay could damage returns.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Ryan Harrison Pension funds adopting engagement overlay strategies are paying lip service to shareholder governance and could damage investment returns in the long run, fund managers warned. An engagement overlay service allows...

News: Ombudsman Watch.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Norman Russell Levies Last week I wrote about the European Court of Justice's decision in the ASW case - then hot off the press. Specifically, I addressed the implications of the case for the Pension Protection Fund (PPF). I...

Opinion: Personal View - There are always more questions than answers.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Terry Monk Covenant reviews have been around for some time, although the use of reviews has changed from occasional to almost a necessity. But what has changed and why shouldn't trustees leave home without one? Up until fairly...

Special Focus: FX innovation - Advances in currency markets for UK pension funds.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Gill Wadsworth, editor As the use of currency and foreign exchange trading gains ground with pension fund trustees, it stands to reason that providers are starting to innovate in this area. Aside from fund managers, investment...

People on the Move: Lost and found: Axa IM undergoes team reshuffle.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Daniel McAllister Axa Investment Managers has suffered the loss of its chief executive officer (CEO) of UK business and head of fixed income to rival Credit Suisse while picking up a head of hedge funds. Credit Suisse has...

People on the Move: Garrett-Cox leaves Morley for rival firm.
February 5, 2007... Morley Fund Management's chief investment officer (CIO) Katherine Garrett-Cox has jumped ship to join investment company Alliance Trust. She will fill the group executive director and CIO post from May 2007. Garrett-Cox will leave...

News: Threadneedle faces review as its performance degenerates.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Kalpana Fitzpatrick Threadneedle Investments has come under fire from a UK pension fund for significant underperformance. The GBP2bn Avon pension fund, administered by Bath & North East Somerset council, said it was...

News: When members depart: DB's hidden debt risks revealed.
February 5, 2007... Employers who are part of group-wide defined benefit (DB) schemes could be saddled with large sums of debt following the departure of active members, actuaries warned. According to Punter Southall, many businesses are unaware trustees...

News in Brief: Close shave for Aon UK's multi-manager.
February 5, 2007... Close Investments, the investment division of Close Brothers Group, has acquired Aon's UK-based multi-manager business. This follows Close's acquisition of Escher (now Close TEAMS) in July 2005. The two businesses will be combined to form...

News in Brief: Forbes to pump up hydraulics firm.
February 5, 2007... Alexander Forbes Financial Services has been appointed by Integrated Hydraulics as a pensions adviser. Alexander Forbes will advise Integrated Hydraulics on its defined benefit pension scheme, providing actuarial, administration and...

News: Age legislation has a 'moderate' effect.
February 5, 2007... Recent age discrimination laws had a 'widespread but manageable' effect on UK pension schemes, a survey found. Pension schemes were legally forced to update their pension plans in line with the European directive on age discrimination in...

News: Overregulation may destroy DC.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Hannah Williams Tighter regulation of defined contribution (DC) pension funds could push employers to abandon schemes, providers warned. The consultation paper issued by the Pensions Regulator to examine the level of governance...

News: T&G calls for strike over Grampian cuts.
February 5, 2007... Pay freezes and pension cuts are among a list of complaints that has brought unions to the brink of strike action against Grampian Foods. Plans by the firm to cut pension benefits by 10% has led to threats of a strike vote by over 2,000...

News: Korean market is ready for investment in 2007.
February 5, 2007... The Korean stock market is ripe for investment with strong economic growth prospects in 2007, according to asset managers. Atlantis Investment Manage-ment said the uninspiring year of flat performance in 2006 has been left behind following...

News in Brief: Russell goes for RCM.
February 5, 2007... RCM has been appointed by Russell Investment Group to run a GBP275m UK high alpha mandate. RCM is the specialist global equity platform of Allianz Global Investors, and its product will form part of the Russell UK equity fund. RCM's UK...

News: Sting in the Tale - Double or quits?
February 5, 2007... Byline: Steve Bee I was looking through the January issue of the Financial Services Authority's newsletter for financial advisers when I noticed the reference made to means- tested benefits and the giving of advice. I more than noticed it...

News: Hedge fund replicator has great appeal.
February 5, 2007... An investment tool that replicates hedge fund returns more cheaply has seen huge demand from European pension schemes. A survey of over 260 European pension schemes found a strong desire for the 'cloned' hedge fund product, which cuts cost...

News: Balanced funds face equity risk.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Hannah Williams Fund managers are vastly overexposing balanced funds to equities, ploughing 80% of pension schemes' portfolios into the asset class, providers warned. According to January's asset allocation figures from fund...

News: Hammonds to run dispute seminars.
February 5, 2007... A series of seminars will look at the growing importance of managing disputes between trustees and companies over how best to tackle their pension scheme deficits. Hammonds law firm, which will host events in March nationwide, said topics...

News: Regulator builds on trustee toolkit with fund management learning module.
February 5, 2007... The online learning service from the Pensions Regulator has added a fund management module to its trustee toolkit to help schemes get to grips with the principles of investment. Aimed at both defined benefit and defined contribution...

Governance Watch: Enodis discloses reward structure for chief executive.
February 5, 2007... Enodis will be holding its annual general meeting (AGM) on February 8, 2007. As part of the analysis, RREV noted the company had three acquisition-related approaches during the year: by The Middleby Corporation and The Manitowoc Company, and...

News: NAPF Notice Board - Forthcoming conferences from the NAPF.
February 5, 2007... NAPF Local Authority Conference The Belfry, Warwickshire April 30 - May 2, 2007. 2007 will be a watershed year for the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). By the time the meeting is held in May, plans for the new look scheme,...

Campaign for Pensions Justice: Reporting the reality behind the headlines.
February 5, 2007... Dear Madam, No doubt you have read, and been appalled by, the stories about the failed BUSM pension scheme and you urged more people to come forward with information about their particular case. On the morning of January 24, 2006 I...

Spotlight: A whole new world.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Jonathan Hoffman The Myners principles, the influential set of guidelines for pension fund trustees designed to improve decision-making, hardly need any introduction. Originally outlined by Paul Myners in his 2001 review of...

Opinion: Leader - The innovation of sticking to a basic budget.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Gill Wadsworth Having sat down and worked out my budget last week I was horrified to discover the amount of utter rubbish I waste my money on each month. Aside from the disturbing pub expenditure, there's the obligatory and...

Opinion: Inside View - Opportunities abound in the burgeoning Reits market.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Ian Hall The introduction of UK real estate investment trusts (Reits) in January 2007 was a significant step for the UK investment market. It puts the UK on a level playing field with countries such as the US, Australia, Japan and...

Special Focus: Special FX.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Anthony Harrington Active managers exist because human intuition and ingenuity operates better than computers in environments where information and the relationships between information sets are not well understood. Put simply,...

Special Focus: Maximum returns.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Anthony Harrington Barclays Capital has launched the Barclays Capital Intelligent Carry Index (ICI), an automated currency index fund that aims to provide investors with a return net of fees, of around 11% at a volatility level of...

Company Profile: Barclays Capital.(Company overview)
February 5, 2007... Background Barclays Capital is the investment banking division of Barclays Bank, which has an AA long-term credit rating and a balance sheet of over GBP986bn. With a distinctive business model, Barclays Capital provides large corporate,...

People on the Move: F&C makes Keen sales director of alternatives.
February 5, 2007... F&C Asset Management has recruited Nicholas Keen as sales director for F&C Alternative Investments. Keen will report to Alex Ingham Clark, director of marketing for alternative investments, which specialises in the management of single...

People on the Move: Hewitt bolsters compensation team.
February 5, 2007... Hewitt Associates has appointed David Tuch to its executive compensation consulting team based in the UK. Tuch has experience of advising companies on executive compensation, in particular the structuring and implementation of remuneration...

People on the Move: TRP hires Euro equity manager.
February 5, 2007... T Rowe Price has appointed Neill Gallagher as a specialist European equity portfolio manager. Gallagher joins from Merrill Lynch Investment Management where he worked as a European equity analyst and portfolio manager for eight years. ...

People on the Move: Woolley to take Neptune into new waters.
February 5, 2007... Neptune Investment Management has appointed Mike Woolley as business development manager. Woolley is responsible for developing Neptune's distribution across the south-east region. He will report to Adam Hughes, head of intermediary sales....

News: Personal accounts to cost taxpayer billions.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Daniel McAllister Taxpayers will have to shell out billions of pounds to get the government's fledgling national private savings plan off the ground, according to pension experts. Personal accounts are facing a similar...

News: HSBC grabs MacGregor in latest multi-manager raid.
February 12, 2007... Investment Solutions is the latest casualty of HSBC Investments' raid on research talent as it continues to bolster its multi-manager offering. Cara MacGregor has defected from her role as research analyst with manager- of-managers...

News: Farquhar leaves Hewitt Associates.
February 12, 2007... The investment research department at Hewitt Associates continues to dwindle following the departure of another key team member. Christine Farquhar, who led Hewitts' bond research capability, is leaving the firm after just 18 months in the...

News: Personal accounts could grow green investment savings.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Hannah Williams Green investing will receive a major boost from personal accounts, as government predictions suggest an extra two million investors could be looking towards ethical saving. The government anticipates up to 10...

News: Group pension funds see growing returns.
February 12, 2007... January brought blossoming returns for group pension managed funds as they continued to make gains on last year's performance. According to figures from Rubicon Investment Consulting the top performer was AIB Investment Managers with the...

News: LA schemes threaten unsafe BP.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Ryan Harrison UK local authority pension funds have threatened to use their powers as voting shareholders against oil giant BP if the firm fails to sharpen up its safety practices. BP came under fire recently over its operating...

News: Study reveals the energy sector is future for portfolios.
February 12, 2007... Pension funds have been told the energy sector should form the centre of their investment portfolios in the coming years. The Barclays Capital equity gilt 2007 study said the energy sector needed a large amount of capital from investors to...

News: Threadneedle defies property fears with European fund.
February 12, 2007... Threadneedle Investments has brushed off concerns over the future of the commercial property market and launched a European real estate fund for UK pension schemes. Working in conjunction with CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), Threadneedle devised...

News: Only 33% have quality level agreements in place.
February 12, 2007... Less than a third of in-house administration providers have an established service level agreement in place to monitor standards, advisers warned. Judith Codling, senior consultant at Higham Dunnett Shaw, said while the vast majority of...

News: Heywood lands GBP4m NI contract.
February 12, 2007... Heywood has bagged a GBP4m contract to provide pensions software to a Northern Ireland public sector pension fund. The seven-year deal with the Northern Ireland Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety Pension Scheme...

News: Disquiet over mortality models.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Hannah Williams The actuarial profession has come under fire from trustees frustrated at the lack of certainty surrounding longevity assumptions. Speaking at the National Association of Pensions Funds' (NAPF) Trustee...

News: OTC derivatives top the list for fund managers in 2007.
February 12, 2007... Mastering the use of over the counter (OTC) derivatives is the investment priority for 2007, the fund management industry said. Research by Investit Intelligence revealed tackling the operational and technology challenges associated with...

News: Females forgotten in the rush to reform pensions.
February 12, 2007... Thousands of women face future poverty because of gaps in pension reforms, charity campaigners warned. Age Concern is urging the government to introduce retrospective changes to state benefit provision after it found almost a quarter of...

News: Royal Mail seals off DB scheme.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Ryan Harrison Royal Mail has become the first state-run pension plan to close its defined benefit (DB) fund to new members, pouring pressure on the government to review its public sector pensions policy. Royal Mail said its...

News: Lloyds TSB refutes rumours of GBP3bn pension deficit.
February 12, 2007... Retail bank Lloyds TSB has hit back at claims its pension scheme is GBP3bn in deficit forcing contributions up by GBP400m. A spokeswoman at the bank told Pensions Week the Lloyds TSB union failed to take into consideration the increase in...

News: Croydon tenders for property mandate.
February 12, 2007... The GBP500m London Borough of Croydon pension fund is to invest in property for the first time in over 10 years. The move will see the scheme slash its equities portfolio and make use of cash holdings. Its large equity allocation,...

News: Fixed income needs more flexibility to invest.
February 12, 2007... UK pension funds should lift the restrictions on fixed income mandates if they are to maximise the returns of their portfolios. Mark Miller, executive director and head of business development for UK defined benefit at Fidelity...

News: FTSE4Good listings tightens up on entrance standards.
February 12, 2007... FTSE has raised the bar on its ethical indices, tightening the entry criteria for the FTSE4Good listings to encourage companies to tackle their carbon footprints. The index, which was created five years ago on the back of mounting pressure...

News: Trustee - Hecklers welcome.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Clive Gilchrist I spoke at a conference recently in a session entitled 'Investment consultants: what is their real worth?' It was a double-headed session starting with an investment consultant extollling their virtues, and...

News: UK funds facing trapped surpluses within four years.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Daniel McAllister The typical UK pension scheme will be in surplus within four years if trustees fail to factor in expected increases in equity markets, actuaries warned. Consultants from Pricewater- houseCoopers (PwC), Lane...

News: RLAM aims at institutional investors.
February 12, 2007... Royal London Asset Management (RLAM) has launched an ethical bond trust for institutional investors. Aiming to maximise income over the medium to long term, the fund will mainly invest in fixed interest securities issued by companies or...

News: Knowledge levels severely low.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Daniel McAllister Scheme members have a "dangerous lack of pension knowledge" with 40% of savers unaware of tax-free cash and over half believing their fund is guaranteed, a survey revealed. The Alexander Forbes Financial...

News: Henderson boosts ailing firms with active engagement.
February 12, 2007... Henderson Global Investors is boosting its equity business with an active engagement fund - aiming to transform businesses through direct action. The approach is aimed at long-term investments and involves Henderson offering active support...

News: Two-tiers squeeze on trustees.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Hannah Williams Ballooning responsibility and conflicts of interest piled on trustees could signal a decline in member-nominated input and a greater reliance on professional trustees, industry insiders warned. Delegates at the...

News: Investment performance checks are vital to error avoidance.
February 12, 2007... A host of industry bodies have united to urge UK firms to raise investment performance checks higher up their corporate agenda. The Association of British Insurers (ABI), the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) and the Investment...

News: Custodians warn over interest rate swaps.
February 12, 2007... Trustees ignorant of derivative dangers could be exposed to control risks when investing in interest rate swaps, custodians warned. Ted Hall, managing director of custody services at Bank of New York, said: "There is a lack of understanding...

News: Investec opens small allocation fund aimed at currency markets.
February 12, 2007... Investec Asset Management has launched an actively managed currency fund targeting schemes seeking small allocations in currency. The highly geared fund expands the firm's fixed income proposition and seeks to invest in developed and...

News: Specialist equity manager launches in UK.
February 12, 2007... Four Capital Partners is set to launch a specialist UK equity fund management business with a trio of initial products. The long-only diversified UK equity portfolio, the long-only focus UK equity portfolio and the long/short absolute...

Governance Watch: Reorientating management arrangements at Compass.
February 12, 2007... Compass Group will be holding its annual general meeting (AGM) on February 16, 2007. In recent years, Compass issued three profit warnings and its share price reduced by a quarter over an 18 month period. It has been reported the...

News: NAPF Notice Board.
February 12, 2007... SERVICE HELPS PENSION SCHEMES TO RECRUIT TOP TRUSTEES A recruitment service providing dedicated investment expertise for pension scheme trustee boards has been launched by the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) and Trust...

News: Ombudsman Watch.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Norman Russell Weather I have just received emails from my two brothers-in-law in Chicago. They both married (different) girls from Chicago 25 years' ago. One is a social worker. The other is a management consultant....

Campaign for Pensions Justice: Reporting the reality behind the headlines.
February 12, 2007... Pension wind-up victim "I am aged 53 and I worked for my company for 31 years. I paid into the scheme for 25 years; it is now in wind-up. I have never been on social security or unemployed and had only six days off sick in 30 years. I...

Profile: Forging ahead with flexibility in busy times.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Hannah Williams Penny Green is a busy woman. Charged with responsibility for the in-house benefits, administration, pensioner payroll and investment committee support for the Superannuation Arrangements of the University of London...

Opinion: Leader - UK in complete pensions ignorance shocker.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Gill Wadsworth I decided not to hold the front page for the revelation from Alexander Forbes Financial Services that most people don't have a clue about pensions. And this is no reflection of the validity of the adviser's...

Opinion: Personal View - It's all in the alignment between what you have and what you don't.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Paul Trickett According to Watson Wyatt research only around 40% of UK pension funds have investment strategies and governance arrangements that are aligned, with 50% appearing over ambitious in their investment structures and less...

Opinion: Inside View - Exchanging confusion for a unique investment class.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Collin Crownover Many pension fund investors continue to misunderstand and even ignore the risks associated with currency exposure, even though international assets generally account for a substantial proportion of their...

Special Focus: Spreading the Risk - How diversification could be the key to returns.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Gill Wadsworth, editor When you look at the number of investment options open to the UK's pension fund trustees, it seems curious to think that just a few years ago most portfolios were made up of a simple equity bond split. ...

Special Focus: Open your eyes.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Gill Wadsworth The equity and bond comfort blanket has been almost impossible to prise from the hands of the UK's pension trustees and remains in evidence despite the maturation and sophistication of investment portfolios. A...