All Pensions articles – Page 4
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White papersSuper 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 papersChoice 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 papersPensions 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 papersPensions 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 papersRevolution 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 papersDB 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 papersA 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 papersCase 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 papersInvestment 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 papersStrategic 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 papersCOVID-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 papersA factors-first approach to efficiently growing assets in the surplus space
Corporate pension plans’ top priority: Building efficient portfolios in the surplus space
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White papersAmundi Pension Funds Letter n°12
The coming of summer has also seen the return of extreme heatwaves, catastrophic flooding and devastating forest fires. The arrival of the COP26 could not be more timely given the need for a universal response to the climate crisis. Pension funds as major global asset owners have a key role to play in this response.
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White papersHarnessing the Potential of Private Assets: a Framework for Institutional Portfolio Construction
Institutional portfolios such as corporate pension plans are increasing allocations to illiquid private assets seeking better returns and diversification. However, as allocations increase, a portfolio’s liquidity structure changes, sometimes abruptly. How can a CIO increase their confidence with private asset allocations and unlock their potential?
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White papersAmundi Pension Funds Letter n°11
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of discussion has focused on the worsening of the retirement prospects of savers around the world. Indeed, exceptional policies, such as the possibility of raiding retirement pots in advance and the low interest rate environment supported by dovish monetary policies, could potentially have dramatic impacts on the availability of pensions in the long run.
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White papersThe role global corporate bonds play for Irish defined benefit schemes
As Irish DB pension schemes continue to de-risk, an allocation to investment grade credit could offer compelling opportunities within a well-diversified portfolio.
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White papersCore Matters: Sustainability and Adequacy in EU Public and Private Pension Schemes
As reported by EUROSTAT1 in 2019, pensions are the main income source for close to one quarter of the EU‐28 population. Therefore, it is very important that pensions should provide retirees with a decent standard of living and protect them from poverty.
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White papersPrivate credit markets – adjusting, adapting and responding
Lately, there has been renewed interest to get deals done and enter into negotiations on new investments as private credit markets re-open following a period of relative stability and reduced volatility in publicly-traded markets.
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White papersOptimizing pension plan outcomes using public and private real assets
Allocating to real assets is rarely straightforward, and investing in them is often considered a trade-off between performance and liquidity. Our latest paper offers a framework to help investors with those concerns and the key considerations when selecting public versus private investments.
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White papersSeeking income – the case for investing in private corporate debt
Pension funds with current cashflow requirements depend on a steady stream of payouts, but face a number of unique challenges in their search for income against a backdrop of lower-for-longer yields and volatile investment conditions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
