LONDON (Reuters) - British pension funds must overcome their historic distrust of derivatives, which could protect portfolios from sudden market moves or shifts in economic policy that many schemes are ill-equipped to cope with, advisers say. The return of quantitative easing has reinforced a case for reform in the way some pension funds are managed, with some critics honing in on the infrequency of trustee meetings to approve asset allocation changes.
LONDON (Reuters) - Some pension funds are beginning to question their investments in commodities after accusations that massive flows into the sector have distorted markets, fuelled food inflation and hurt poor nations. The role of hot money in commodities has unnerved some investors following high profile campaigns by pressure groups and French President Nicolas Sarkozy linking surging grain and fuel prices to a rise in poverty in developing countries.
ALBANY, N.Y. - Wall Street's volatility has hit state pension funds just as they were beginning to recover from the recession, turning what was merely a troubled forecast into a potentially stormy future for taxpayers who are on the hook for billions in unfunded liabilities for government retirees. As for the millions of government clerks, engineers, janitors, teachers and firefighters in the retirement systems, they are protected by law or, as in New York, by the state constitution, to be backed up by tax dollars if necessary. Their benefits remain safe for life in guaranteed "defined benefit" pension plans that are disappearing in the private sector, where most employees are left to fend for themselves with 401(k) plans that they mostly or entirely fund themselves.
EVANSTON, Ill., June 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Economists predict that American households will have to contribute an average of $1,398 per year to fulfill pension promises, according to a new study from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. The paper, "The Revenue Demands of Public Employee Pension Promises," is co-authored by Joshua Rauh of the Kellogg School and Robert Novy-Marx of the University of Rochester. Rauh and Novy-Marx calculate the increases in state and local pension contributions that would be required to achieve full funding of state and local pension systems in the U.S. over the next 30 years.
Charleston City Council members agreed Monday to move more than $850,000 to the city's police and fire pension funds - about half of the money the city is required to contribute by the end of the fiscal year under the city's new pension plan. The conservation method of funding the pension plans requires Charleston to come up with an additional $1.7 million this fiscal year and add it to the close to $7 million in funds the city was already paying into the pension funds.
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank released a new generation of statistics on Monday [June 27], that for the first time gives it data on key parts of the so-called "shadow" banking system now increasingly important for policy. The new information allows the ECB to get under the bonnet of insurance firms and pension funds and gives it a better handle on parts of the system such as securitization now influential for lending trends.
States don't usually volunteer to open their books to the IRS, but that's exactly what New Jersey is doing with its troubled public employee pension funds. And now the state is waiting to find out if it's in compliance with the federal tax code. In January, the state Treasury Department asked the IRS to review the tangle of rules and regulations that guide the pension plans, valued at $70 billion, for hundreds of thousands of state employees and issue what is called a determination letter, essentially signing off on how the plans are being administered.
Since fiscal 1995, the Montana pension funds' investment returns have averaged 6.2 percent annually, he said, hurt by negative returns in 2001, 2002, 2008 and 2009. On the positive side, South said pension assets are more diversified than they were in 1979 and include small- and midcap domestic stock as well as international stock, international and high-yield bonds and private equity and private real estate.
ver las páginas en versión mobile | web
ver las páginas en versión mobile | web
© Copyright 2012, vLex. All Rights Reserved.
Contents in vLex United States
Explore vLex
For Professionals
For Partners
Company
Other interesting searches:
Interdent Service Corporation | Bob Baird | Andrew Grove | Army Training | voucher express | Neublans-abergement | seguridad del transporte aereo | remilly sur tille | parlement européen bruxelles
