Do Investment Regulations Compromise Pension Fund Performance?


Book Description

" "Draconian" regulations have created distortions in asset management, limited opportunities for diversification, and, as a consequence have hampered, the performance of pension funds." This volume shows that the return to retirement assets, expected replacement rates, and, hence, the net welfare gain from pension reform is lower under a draconian regulatory framework than under a more liberal pension fund investment regime. Important policy conclusions of the paper are that existing regulatory regimes should be liberalized as soon as possible to allow pension fund investments in a wider array of financial instruments and that regulations should require evaluation of pension fund performance against market benchmarks as opposed to exclusive focus on comparisons with industry averages. The paper also suggests a review of the current structure of the private pension fund industry in Latin America and an evaluation against alternatives in the light of actual performance experience.




Governance and Investment of Public Pension Assets


Book Description

And key messages -- Key principles of governance and investment management -- Governance of public pension assets -- Governance structures and accountabilities -- Qualification, selection, and operation of governing bodies -- Operational policies and procedures -- Managing fiscal pressures in defined-benefit schemes -- Policy responses to turbulent financial markets -- Investment of public pension assets -- Defining the investment policy framework for public pension funds -- Managing risk for different cohorts in defined-contribution schemes -- An asset-liability approach to strategic asset allocation for pension funds -- In-house investment versus outsourcing to external investment managers -- International investments and managing the resulting currency risk -- Alternative asset classes and new investment themes.




The effects of investment regulations on pension funds performance in Brazil


Book Description

Challenges faced by pension funds today include steady increases in life expectancy, frequent changes in the accounting rules, low interest rates and poor equity market returns. It is possible to tackle the difficulties encountered by pension funds not only by raising contributions and/or reducing benefits, but also by improving the way in which pension funds invest. In spite of some changes in the past few years, Brazilian pension funds investment management remains subject to strict constraints. The findings of this study, carried out in 2007, suggest that, even though the results of conducted tests deny, to some extent, the need for further adjustments in investment regulations, concluding this way would not be accurate. There are, in fact, strong reasons to believe that the high interest rates environment experienced over the last years contaminated these results. Furthermore, with a clear downward trend in interest rates, it is possible to imply that, if nothing is done, pension funds will lack flexibility when they need it the most.




Model Rules of Professional Conduct


Book Description

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.




Administrative Costs and the Organization of Individual Retirement Account Systems


Book Description

Organizing individual retirement accounts through the institutional market and with constrained choice could substantially lower administrative costs. The tradeoff: rebidding problems, weaker performance incentives, inflexibility in the face of unforeseen contingencies, and an increased probability of corruption, collusion, and regulatory capture.




The Bridge to a Global Middle Class


Book Description

The Bridge to a Global Middle Class compiles a unique series of papers originally commissioned by the Council on Foreign Relations in the wake of the financial crises of 1997-1998. This thought-provoking retrospective culls the views of economists, international financial institutions, Wall Street, organized labor and varying public-interest organizations on the issue of how to fortify our global financial infrastructure. Their effort is the culmination of an 18-month study - The Project on Development, Trade, and International Finance - that seeks to encourage the evolution of middle-class oriented economic development in emerging market countries. In addressing the world economic problems that led to the crises and examining methods to improve the workings of the world's financial markets, they offer ideas, policy recommendations, and suggest the concrete forms these might take, in the drive to transition the world economy toward strategies that offer the developing world an improved standard of living. These papers make a convincing case for middle-class-oriented economic development as the key to global prosperity and stability. U.S. and international policy-makers will find these insightful discussions valuable in forming new policy and providing the appropriate stimulus for economic development in emerging economies.




Workable Pension Systems


Book Description

"Based primarily on papers delivered at Pension Reform in English-Speaking Caribbean Countries : an International Symposium and Policy Seminar, which was held June 4-6, 2003, at the Caribbean Development Bank's Conference Centre in Wildey, St. Michael, Barbados"--Acknowledgments.




Household Risk Management and Social Protection in Chile


Book Description

This publication examines whether a social protection system (broadly defined to include policy interventions, public institutions, and the regulation of private institutions to address welfare costs of problems such as job loss and extended unemployment, health episodes, old age, and life-time poverty) exists in Chile or whether it is has a set of loosely co-ordinated programmes instead. It assesses whether households are provided with appropriate tools to mitigate risks to their income, identifies gaps in coverage, and sets out guidelines, grounded in a conceptual framework, designed to increase the effectiveness of social protection.







Developing Annuities Markets


Book Description

Developing Annuities Markets: The Experience of Chile is part of a multicountry World Bank project analyzing the market for retirement products. Among countries that have reformed their pension systems since the early 1990s, the Chilean case has emerged as the most relevant for drawing policy lessons on the role of the private sector in the provision of retirement income for two reasons: the depth, sophistication, and efficiency of the country's retirement products market, and the fact that this market was successfully developed from scratch by a middle-income country. The book examines in det.