Investment fund selection techniques from the perspective of Brazilian pension funds

ABSTRACT The aim of this article was to evaluate the effectiveness of investment fund selection techniques from the perspective of Brazilian pension funds. Asset liability management (ALM) and liability driven investment (LDI) strategies are usually adopted to guide pension fund managers in relation to strategic allocation in asset classes that should compose their investment portfolios and to the liquidity needed in each period, but not specifying in which assets to allocate resources from among the infinity of assets available in the financial market. This article contributes to tactical management in the fixed income and stock segments outsourced via funds and demonstrates that adopting simple indicators can increase investment performance. The article broadens the knowledge on pension fund investment decisions and creates confidence in the adoption of the Sharpe ratio as a technique for choosing investment funds. We analyzed the returns obtained by hypothetical portfolios built using the following techniques: (i) the Sharpe ratio; (ii) the alpha of a multifactor model; (iii) data envelopment analysis (DEA) efficiency; and (iv) the different combinations of these techniques. We considered information on 369 funds from 2013 to 2018, adopting 12 temporal windows for choosing and re-evaluating the portfolios. The returns obtained were compared with the mean actuarial goal of the benefits plans administered by the pension funds, by means of the unplanned divergence (UD). When outsourcing pension fund investments in fixed income and stock investment funds it was verified that the Sharpe ratio contributes significantly to pension fund performance, compared with other indicators and techniques or a combination of them.

A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE PERFORMANCE OF NIFTY 50 AND EQUITY FUNDS UNDER TIER-II OF NATIONAL PENSION SCHEME

The National Pension Scheme (NPS) is a defined contribution and a corporate pension fund that provides financial assistance to all Indian citizens. There are two types of accounts in the National Pension Scheme: Tier I and Tier II. Tier I is a mandatory deposit pension fund account and Tier II is a voluntary pension account. Tier I and Tier II is are consisted of different assets namely, equity, government security and alternative asset. The equity schemes are directly linked with the market. The return of all the fund managers in equity schemes are not same as the portfolio of all the fund managers are not same. Secondary data has been collected from respective websites of Pension Fund Managers and has been used to calculate mean, SD, Variance, and Correlation to predict the performance of equity funds. ANOVA and T-test have been for assessing the comparative analysis of the different fund managers under equity scheme in tier II. As per the study, LIC PF and ICICI PF are the best performer during the study period. The performance of SBI PF is poor among other equity funds under Tier-II of NPS during the study period. In term of risk, LIC PF is the higher risky equity fund and UIT PF is the lowest risky equity fund under Tier-II of NPS. It can be said that investors need to be high-risk taker to invest in that LIC PF. Through the risk analysis during said period of time, it is found that the ability to observe risk differs in equity funds under Tier-II of NPS. The main reason for this being a voluntary account of Tier -II. As there is no lock-in period in this account, the investors mostly use for a short-term purpose. In the recent decision of the government, Tier-II offers a lock-in period for 3 years with tax benefit. This decision may be affected the investment pattern of the investors. KEY WORDS: - National Pension Scheme, Performance, Equity Scheme, Nifty 50

Optimal portfolios for the DC pension fund with mispricing under the HARA utility framework

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>This paper studies the optimal portfolio selection for defined contribution (DC) pension fund with mispricing. We adopt the general hyperbolic absolute risk averse (HARA) utility to describe the risk performance of the pension fund managers. The financial market comprises a risk-free asset, a pair of mispriced stocks, and the market index. Using the dynamic programming approach, we construct the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation and obtain the explicit expressions for optimal portfolio choices with two methods. Finally, numerical analysis is presented to illustrate the sensitivity of the optimal portfolios to parameters of the financial market and contribution process. <b>200</b> words.</p>

Comparing the Performance and Management Style of Retirement Pension Funds before and after the Private Pension Activation Plan

We analyzed and compared the performance and management style of retirement pension funds before and after the private pension activation plan (PPAP). First, we found that retirement-pension funds showed better performance than public funds before the PPAP. However, after the PPAP, the retirement-pension market size increased and the difference in performance disappeared. Second, we found that the difference between top and bottom performance group in the retirement pension fund becomes more significant after the PPAP. Third, we found that various investment strategies such as small-medium size stock investment and sector investment are offered in the retirement-pension fund only to result in the inferior performance. Finally, when we compared the management style, the retirement-pension funds showed a smaller value factor compared to public funds for the period after the PPAP. Therefore, we argue that the fund selection has become a more significant factor in determining the retirement fund performance after the PPAP. However, considering that the average retirement-pension holders’ financial knowledge is rather low, the expansion of fund choices may adversely affect the pension holder’s performance. Therefore, a retirement-pension provider’s role as fund selection authority has become more critical, and it is necessary to establish an institutional device that can manage, supervise, and monitor their activities.

The main priorities of using and managing the funds of the unified accumulative pension fund of the Republic of Kazakhstan

The purpose of the article is the formation of an optimal model of pension provision of citizens in accordance with the modern market economy on the most important issues arising in the accumulative pension system of the Republic of Kazakhstan, strengthening its theoretical, methodological and legal foundations. The Republic of Kazakhstan was one of the first CIS countries to start pension reform 24 years ago. The main goal is to establish the personal responsibility of each citizen of Kazakhstan for his financial situation when reaching retirement age. In this regard, when implementing the reform, the state policy envisaged a gradual transition from the application of the principle of cooperation between generations to independent savings in pension funds. The pension reform in Kazakhstan was carried out optimally and the World Bank recognized it as one of the most successful reforms. The accumulative pension system plays a significant role in the life of the country, the development of the stock market and the improvement of the national economy, the distribution of long-term investments at the expense of domestic savings to increase the competitiveness of the country. In order to become one of the 30 effectively developed countries of the world, the state has created high standards of living for the citizens of Kazakhstan by improving the level and quality of pension provision. For this, one of the most important components of the economic and social conditions of the population is that accumulative pension funds in Kazakhstan should develop further, and the pension system should be competitive. The main pillar of the accumulative pension system in the country is the improvement of the accumulative pension fund and effective pension provision, which forms the basis of the future population. In the conditions of modern globalization and rapid development of financial markets, the financial position of the accumulative pension fund, a participant in the financial market, and its effective functioning are in the first place.

National Pension Scheme in India: Functions and Performance

National Pension Scheme is a mandatory for all central and state government employees who joined in services after 2005. Although the scheme is implemented in 2006, most of the government employees are unknown about the benefit of the same scheme. Hence, this paper highlights functions of national pension scheme and performance of pension fund managers in terms of its return in 2020. ANOVA tool is employed for analyzing differences in return by pension fund managers. The study is concluded that HDFC pension fund gives more return other than pension fund.

THE PUBLIC COMPANIES LAW AND SUBSTANTIVE IMAGES OF PERSONS OF PUBLIC LAW IN MODERN RUSSIAN LEGISLATION

The article outlines the general problems arising in the system of the Russian legislation associated with the contradiction between the legal forms set forth in the Civil Code and the forms of legal entities that were actually formed in public law. As a specific example, it was impossible to inscribe those entities which had special legal status (Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the Pension Fund of Russia, Vnesheconombank of the USSR, Bank for Foreign Trade of the RSFSR) in the proposed by Civil Code classification. The emergence of the legal form of a public corporation is seen in the article as an attempt to remove the existing contradictions in legislation.

Long lease real estate – a revised role for real estate in pension fund portfolios

PurposeLong lease real estate funds (over £15bn in Q3 2020) have emerged as an increasingly important part of UK pension fund real estate portfolios. This paper explores the reasons for their dramatic growth, their characteristics and performance.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses data for the period 2004–2020 collected directly from fund managers and from AREF/MSCI and empirical analysis to explore their characteristics and performance.FindingsPension fund de-risking and regulatory guidance have supported the dramatic growth of long lease real estate funds. Long lease real estate funds have delivered strong risk-adjusted returns relative to both balanced property funds (with shorter lease terms) and the wider property market. This relative performance has been particularly strong when wider property market performance has been weak. Long lease funds have objectives aligned with liability matching and their performance suggests they are lower risk (more bond-like) investments. In addition, our analysis highlights they are far less responsive to the wider property market than balanced funds. However, they are not significantly different from balanced property funds in terms of their short-term relationship with gilt yield movements.Practical implicationsFor pension funds and other investors the paper highlights that long lease real estate funds offer a different exposure than balanced property funds. Long lease funds have objectives more closely aligned to the overall objectives for pension fund investment but are not significantly more reliable than balanced property funds in the short-term as a liability hedge. For real estate fund managers, occupiers, developers and others active in the real estate market, the paper highlights why these funds have been (and are likely to remain) attractive to investors leading to substantial demand for long lease real estate investments.Originality/valueThis is the first study to review this increasingly important part of the UK real estate fund universe.

COVID-19 The Global Pandemic: Learning & Take Out for National Pension System (NPS)

The SARS Cov-2 (Covid 19) pandemic has shaken the whole world; it has brought the business, education, industry, transport, communications, travel, hospitality almost all the economic activities to a standstill. Accordingly, it has adversely affected the financial markets and stock exchanges across the globe. The stock exchanges, may it be New York Stock Exchange, Dow Jones, London Stock Exchange, Nikkei, Bombay Stock Exchange or National Stock Exchange experienced an unprecedented plunge of 40 to 50% in a period few weeks. This new dynamic of volatility possesses serious questions about the market driven National Pension System (NPS) which endeavor to ensure smooth retirement life for Indian elderly. The volatility in security market will significantly impact the fund managers’ performance and accordingly the retirement benefit of the subscriber. This article has investigated the impacts of pandemic on fund manager’s risk returns profile. We have used three industry standard risk-adjusted returns parameters such as Sharpe ratio, Treynor Ratio and Jensen’s alpha to evaluate the performance of NPS pension fund managers selected under study. The study has also explored the learning from such unexpected crisis for the policy makers for future preparedness. On the basis of finding, it has suggested some measures for long run sustainability of schemes under NPS. Keywords : NPS, PFRDA, Defined benefit, Defined contribution, Pension fund managers, Risk adjusted returns, COVID-19.