Europe

UK - The £2.6bn J Sainsbury Pension & Death Benefits Scheme is expected to increase its allocation to bonds by around 5% and allocate around 5-10% towards alternatives.

UK - Pension industry leaders have attacked "threats" by Chancellor Gordon Brown to scrap simplification plans if they do not agree on the £1.4m lifetime limit.

UK - Consultants have accused Invesco Perpetual of hypocrisy after chief executive officer Rob Hain lectured the fund management industry on how to rebuild consumer confidence.

UK - Ashurst Morris Crisp has joined the growing list of law firms to rebrand in favour of a shorter name.

UK - More than two-thirds of 55 to 64-year-olds are not in employment, a new study shows.

UK - Law firm TLT is urging companies to carry out an annual pensions health check to ensure "everything is in shape".

UK - Small and mid-cap stocks still have the potential to outperform their large-cap counterparts, Standard Life Investment claims.

UK - Soaring policing costs - which have been blamed for fuelling council tax rises - are mainly due to pension costs, police forces claim.

FRANCE - France has overtaken the UK as the favoured destination for cross-border investment in commercial property according to DTZ Research.

UK - Nearly two-thirds of life and pensions providers would prefer to outsource their business to UK firms than take the process overseas, a survey by Marlborough Stirling shows.