All Pensions articles – Page 3
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White papers
Pensions Watch | Issue 22: What’s been happening and what’s on the horizon in the world of pensions
Given the ever-greater regularity of unanticipated impactful events with equally unpredictable tipping points, we look at the importance to pension scheme fiduciaries of risk management. In particular, we consider the need for both more inventive scenario analysis and stress testing of schemes’ resilience against a multitude of ever-present and emerging risks allied to more nimble governance.
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White papers
What does the UK’s LDI shock say about leverage and liquidity?
In the latest instalment of Simply put, where we make macro calls with a multi-asset perspective, we examine the factors behind the recent LDI market shock in the UK and consider whether these risks can be alleviated going forward.
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White papers
Amundi Pension Funds Letter - Special Edition: UK LDI Crisis
Given the yield increases at the announcement of the UK accommodative mini-budget a week ago, pension schemes suffered a massive liquidity crisis related to their leveraged LDI strategies. This drove the Bank of England to temporarily halt Quantitative Tightening.
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White papers
The impact of credit risk for pension plans engaging with CDI
Cashflow-driven investing (CDI) has gained significant traction in recent years as pension plans have successfully de-risked and strengthened their balance sheets over the last decade. Increasing numbers of plans are able to allocate significant proportions (potentially all of their assets) to fixed income like assets so that cashflow income closely matches expected liability payment, thus providing a simpler hedge and reducing the complexity of portfolios. Investment products, strategies and asset classes have developed to facilitate this approach.
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White papers
Amundi Pension Funds Letter n°15
As holidaymakers resume their familiar summer breaks and crowds return to the Champs-Elysées to cheer on the final stage of the 2022 Tour de France, elsewhere established customs and trends seem less secure. One could say that this period of transition has been ongoing for some time. But in 2022, a new phase clearly unfolded, one unique to our times, but at the same time also hugely familiar. A phase where everything takes on a geopolitical slant.
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White papers
A well-founded pension fund uptake in central clearing
Pension funds play an important role in the financial industry and the lives of European pensioners. Regulatory changes such as the mandatory clearing of over-the-counter financial instruments (OTC IRS) and the increase in capital requirements for banks pose major challenges for European pension funds.
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White papers
Are pension funds set to flex their financial muscle in climate fight?
Pension allocations to climate funds - including in the private assets sphere - are likely to increase dramatically, with potentially vital consequences in the real world.
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Podcast
The Accidental Plan Sponsor Podcast - S.2 EP.2: The Down Under Edition
Here’s what you need to know about Australia’s Retirement System: It’s really big. It’s government mandated. It’s privately run. It’s really sophisticated.
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White papers
Super Funds & Master Trusts in a World of Member Switching, Early Release Schemes & Climate Calamities
As defined contribution (DC) plans have grown and have increasingly become the primary retirement savings vehicle, asset allocators are increasingly interested in incorporating illiquid private assets in these retirement funds to offer participants access to investment portfolios and risk-adjusted returns similar to defined benefit (DB) plans or larger institutional portfolios.
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White papers
Choice Overload participation and asset Allocation in French savings Plans
This paper employs administrative data from one of the largest plan providers in France to investigate the role of plan and default characteristics in affecting whether employees participate in the plan and whether they accept its default investment option.
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White papers
Pensions Investment Outlook: Challenges and Opportunities
There are several uncertainties in the economic and market outlook that are important for pension funds.
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White papers
Pensions Watch – Issue 16: What’s Been Happening And What’s On The Horizon In The World Of Pensions
In this edition of Pensions Watch, the first for 2022, we consider what’s on the horizon over the next 12 months for UK pension schemes, what these initiatives mean for schemes and why each is key to improving member outcomes.
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White papers
Revolution on the horizon: will the Dutch pension system still set the bar for sustainability, adequacy and integrity?
Despite the seismic demographic, economic and regulatory shifts that have challenged many other pension systems over the past couple of decades, the Netherlands’ three-pillar pension system, introduced in the 1950s, remains uniquely generous in many respects, with collectivity and intergenerational risk sharing central to the system’s ethos.
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White papers
DB plans in their End Game in the post-pandemic era
An inopportune toxic confluence of three unrelated forces has badly undermined the finances of employer-sponsored defined benefit pension plans, in which employers bear most of the risks involved in providing decent retirement pensions to their employees.
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White papers
A smoother journey to the endgame
After years of seemingly always being at least 10 years from full funding, UK Defined Benefit (DB) pension schemes appear to be moving closer to the end of their journey. But what is their destination, what is the plan for getting there and how can fiduciary management help?
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White papers
Case Study: Avoiding cash drag using Equity Index futures
Cash is a necessary component of most investment portfolios. It’s present in a portfolio for operational reasons, including managing subscription/redemption flows and income streams such as dividends.
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White papers
Investment Insights - Closing the funding and income gap
In this current low-yield environment, how can UK defined pension schemes position their portfolios to improve funding levels and cashflows as they continue de-risking?
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White papers
Strategic Asset Allocation for a Default Pension Plan
This literature review discusses how to design a default life-cycle asset allocation for a defined contribution (DC) pension scheme. This default option may be the same for all participants, or it could be customised to plan members’ profiles.
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White papers
COVID-19 Strained Participant Financial Wellness: Can Employers Help Them Recover?
With COVID-19 still a top employer concern, protecting workers’ health and well-being naturally comes first. But the pandemic’s impact isn’t limited to only physical and mental health: financial wellness is also ailing. The crisis has exacerbated the problem, but it’s not exactly a sudden occurrence.
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White papers
A factors-first approach to efficiently growing assets in the surplus space
Corporate pension plans’ top priority: Building efficient portfolios in the surplus space