Ivo Knoepfel and Gordon Hagart outline the investment opportunity present in the growing sector of 'environmentally enhanced' real estate

AUSTRALIA - The Superannuation Complaints Tribunal (SCT) has called for clearer guidance and information regarding death benefits and how they are handled.

UK - Aon Consulting has launched a specialist trustee service to provide support for covenant assessments of sponsoring employers.

Amy Middleton and Sylvia Huang investigate the diversification benefits to bond and equity portfolios of both unhedged and hedged foreign exposure

NETHERLANDS - PGGM has pulled its investment out of PetroChina due to human rights violations by the company.

US - Women over 50 were much less likely than men to receive an annuity or pension income in 2006, but improvements are being made, according to research from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).

Aon Consulting has launched a specialist trustee service to provide dedicated support for covenant assessments of sponsoring employers.

US - BlackRock and Merrill Lynch have released Q4 and full year financial results, in which Merrill Lynch posted a full year net loss of US$7.8bn.

CANADA - Credit crunch caused Canadian pension plans to suffer loses in the final two quarters of 2007, according to RBC Dexia Investor Services.

Pension Protection Fund proposals to raise the cut-off point for schemes paying the risk-based levy are unfair and penalise better-funded schemes, a consultant claims.