Pension Fund

This paper argues that pension funds can earn attractive risk-adjusted rates of return on targeted real estate investment in underserved capital markets. Targeted investing is designed to achieve both a financial and social return. Fiduciary duty requires public sector pension funds to put financial obligations at the forefront of their decision-making. However these funds also have a vested interest in ensuring vibrant, healthy communities that in turn underpin employer contributions to the fund. We examine the California Urban Real Estate (CURE) program of the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) as a model of targeted real estate investment in urban and underserved capital markets. From this case study we draw some implications for best practice in targeted investment.

Objective – The aim of the article is to present the development of a simulation framework which identifies Malaysia Pension Fund main sources as well as the financial activities.
Methodology/Technique – Numerous factors influencing the financial condition pension fund is summarized. Based on the set of system factors in literature summarization, causal loop diagram is used to analyse the inter-relationships among these factors.
Findings – Causal loop diagram shows a relationship between these factors, which can be used in analysing financial condition of a pension fund. In the developed causal loop diagram, it shows the main sources of Malaysia pension fund, the asset allocation, and the future benefit payment.
Novelty – The causal loop diagram will then, be used as a dynamic hypothesis of this study and serves as a basis for quantitative models.

All of Zambia's pension schemes are deficient in design, financing, and administration. This report urges that Zambia restructure its social protection system to complement its new economic strategy. That restructuring must address such basic problems as macroeconomic fluctuations and an unstable financial sector; high inflation rates and politically-motivated low-yield investments and loans; income ceilings irregularly adjusted for inflation; overgenerous public sector pension benefits; and inadequate management of pension fund operations. In the short and medium term, the objectives should be to settle outstanding pension claims, revise early retirement provisions and investment policies, and improve capabilities for administering statutory pension funds. In the long term the objectives should be to convert the Zambia National Provident Fund (ZNPF) into a modest basic pension scheme for private sector employees, and subsequently integrate civil servants and public sector empl...

This thesis provides empirical evidence on financial skills and the relation with household financial decision-making based upon specially designed questions for the DNB Household Survey (DHS). The majority of the respondents has some grasp of concepts such as interest compounding, inflation, and the time value of money. However, very few go beyond these basic concepts; many households do not know

The call for enhanced financial literacy amongst consumers is a global phenomenon, driven by the growing complexity of financial markets and products, and government concerns about the affordability of supporting an ageing population. Worldwide, defined benefit pensions are giving way to the risk and uncertainty of defined contribution superannuation/pension funds where fund members now make choices and decisions that were once made on their behalf. An important prerequisite for informed financial decision-making is adequate financial knowledge and skills to make competent investment decisions. This paper reports the findings of an online survey of the members of a large Australian public sector-based superannuation fund and shows that although respondents generally understand basic financial matters, on average, their understanding of investments concepts, such as the relationship between risk and returns, is inadequate. These results highlight the need for education programs focusing specifically on developing fund members’ investment knowledge and skills to facilitate informed retirement savings decisions.

As Germany enters the 21st century, the traditional system of corporate governance, often referred to as “Deutschland AG”, has come under intense pressure to change. This report seeks to analyze the recent dynamics of the system to assess the extent to which they have already led to an erosion of the traditional characteristics. Many of the distinct features of the

Most countries have separate pension plan for public sector employees. The future fiscal burden of these plans can be substantial as the government usually is the largest employer, pension promises in the public sector tend to be relatively generous, and future payments have to be paid out directly from government revenues (pay-as-you-go) or by funded plans (pension funds) which tend to be underfunded. The valuation and disclosure of these promises in some countries lacks transparency, which may be hiding potentially huge fiscal liabilities that are being passed on to future generations of workers.In order to arrive at a fair comparison between countries regarding the fiscal burden of their DB public sector pension plans, this paper gathers more evidence on public sector pension plans regarding the type of pension promise and quantifies the future tax burden related to these pension promises. The reported liabilities are recalculated using both a fair value approach (local market di...

Despite the fact that China is already one of the most important economies in the world, the country has many big tasks to solve, being one of them the implementation of a comprehensive social agenda, including those related with the old-age stage and the ...

As Germany enters the 21st century, the traditional system of corporate governance, often referred to as “Deutschland AG”, has come under intense pressure to change. This report seeks to analyze the recent dynamics of the system to assess the extent to which they have already led to an erosion of the traditional characteristics. Many of the distinct features of the German system have shown strong resilience despite the pressure for change, while other features seem to have unraveled quickly. The areas in which these changes appeared to have emerged most profoundly and quickly are in the role of banks and in the role of financial markets. Germany is often cited as a classical case of “non-shareholder value orientation”, whose production-oriented, long-term, risk adverse and consensus-driven values have often been contrasted with the “Anglo-Saxon ” approach. The forces currently driving the German political economy towards a shareholder-value orientation can be summarized as follows: ...

This paper provides a stylised assessment of the impact of investment-relevant pension fund regulations and accounting rules on contribution and investment strategies within the context of an asset-liability model (ALM) specifically designed for this purpose. The analysis identifies a substantial impact of regulations which, in a simplified way, resemble those in place in Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and

We examine shareholder initiated social policy proposals' capacity to exert pressure on management to force it to adopt the suggested changes in policy. We show that social proposals, filed under the US Securities and Exchange Commission's Rule 14a-8, have a more limited capacity ...

This paper analyzes the acceptance of Integrated Marketing Communication in the Turkish marketplace and the development of marketing communications in Turkey. As the theoretical basis for a research study strategic communications and newly developing pension firms were studied. A questionnaire was developed to elicit responses on Integrated Marketing communication perception and practices in marketing communication field. The quantitative analysis findings of our research will contribute to the efforts for finding a common ground ...

SUMMARYThis study examines the consequences of a pension fund investing in the stock of the sponsoring firm. Using a merger of data on pension asset holdings from IRS Form 5500 filings and financial data on the company's stock from CRSP, two broad questions are addressed: first, what factors influence the extent of a pension fund's investments in the employer's stock? Second, when a pension invests in the employer's stock, how much is lost as a result of poor diversification? The empirical results suggest that investments in employer stock are responsive to non-diversification costs, tax consequences, and the employee's ability to absorb risk. There is also evidence that employers and employees weight these factors differentially in their decision of how much employer stock to include in the pension. Using actual return data on pension plans, we also find that concentrated investments in employer stock substantially reduce risk-adjusted return performance. Howeve...

A new economic geography of finance is emerging, and the current “financialization” of contemporary economies has contributed greatly to the reshaping of the economic landscape. How can these changes be understood and interpreted, especially from a territorial point of view? There are two contradictory economic theories regarding the tangible effects of the rise of the finance industry. According to neoclassical financial theorists, the finance industry's success is based on its positive effects on the real economy through its capacity to allocate financial resources efficiently. An alternative approach, adopted here, posits that finance does not merely mirror the real economy and that the financial economy, far from being a simple instrument for the allocation of capital, has its own autonomy, its own logic of development and expansion. A series of complex, and sometimes contradictory, connections link financial markets and the real economy, and there are some tensions between them, calling into question the coherence of the regional and national economies that follow from them. Moreover, the territorial approach shows how the mobility/liquidity of capital and the changing dimensions of new regions and countries are central to the finance industry's functioning. This article builds an understanding of the financial system through the lens of pension funds and highlights the impact of such a system on the real economy and its geography.

The key twin objectives of pension and retirement system are income security and consumption smoothing for members and their family (heirs). Accordingly, pension funds worldwide devise laws that preserve and improve these key objectives. Laws that failed to take into account these objectives not only impose extra financial burden on the pension system, but also may pose undesirable social and economic effects. In this respect, economic analysis of pension laws would help lawmakers to make workable and implementable laws. Generally, economic analysis of law seeks to answer two basic questions regarding legal rules: what are the effects of legal rules on the behavior of relevant actors? And are these effects socially desirable? This paper examines the pension law of Iran’s civil servant pension fund (CSPF) for female heirs in light of the afore-mentioned key objectives of pension system, and from social justice point of view. The results from the analysis reveal that this does not only adhere to social justice and pension system’s main purpose, but also it imposes economic and social costs. The weak side of the law also creates financial burden on the pension fund, the young generation (paying pension benefits to the considered heirs from its contribution) and the public at large. The study also shows that life time payment of pensions to heirs by CSPF encourages late or informal marriages hence defecting acceptable social norms and may increase informal labor supply, creating a further problem in the labor market. The study thus recommends the need for reforming the existing law and rules of CSPF for female heirs.

Ndetan, Harrison Tatandam, M.Sc., MPH. Association between Lung Cancer/Multiple Myeloma Mortality and Exposure to Oncogenic Viruses – Statistical Analysis Using Non-model- and Model-based Statistical Methods and Various Control Sampling Schemes for Cancer Mortality in Occupational Cohorts. Doctor of Public Health (Biostatistics), December 2009; 119 pp., 9 tables, 7 appendices, 38 titles. This study was designed to compare non-model- and model-

The demographical evolutions of the last 20 years, the changes in the Romanian economy and society influenced one special category which is the retired people. As inactive population, retired people represents an important category, their numbers being rather big in comparison with the employed population, practical the contributors at the pensions fund. In 2010, the stat has serious problems with