News

JPMORGAN Asset Management has launched two flexible long-only funds for defined benefit and defined contribution schemes.

THE TRADES Union Congress has launched a network of "pensions champions" in a bid to provide workplace advice.

UK - Consultants have questioned Pearl Group's super secretive new buyout product, apparently aimed at leveraged private equity (PE) bids thwarted by pension fund deficits.

CANADA - Employers can now use pension surpluses to pay defined contribution (DC) holidays after the Ontario Court of Appeal (OCA) reversed most of a previous ruling from the Ontario Supreme Court (OSC).

UK - Barings Asset Management has called on the UK government to establish several CalPERS style pension funds as a way of dealing with an expected £600bn civil service pensions black hole which will officially be recognised this year.

US - Citigroup has reportedly agreed to pay over US$15m to settle charges of misleading documentation and inadequate disclosure in retirement seminars for former BellSouth employees in North and South Carolina.

SMOKERS have benefited most from the steady rise in annuity rates over the past six months, new figures show.

UK - The Government has been defeated in the House of Lords after peers backed proposals to ensure fair compensation is available to thousands of pensioners of failed company pension schemes.

US - Robert Leggett has been named chief investment officer of the Teachers' Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL).

CHINA - Hong Kong-based China Life Franklin Asset Management Co. Ltd has been launched by Franklin Templeton Investments and China Life, aiming to provide investment management and advisery services to Chinese institutional investors.