The investment consulting firm overseeing the pension was found to be subject to conflicts of interest as a result of earning millions in undisclosed fees from the investment managers it recommended to the pension.
Apparently the fact that the SEC had investigated the pension consulting industry and found conflicts pervasive and disclosure practices wanting was not sufficient.
The researchers found that the stodgy pension funds, which tend to invest pretty heavily in bonds, lagged behind the benchmark by about a percentage point.
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That is why, on June 26th, some 40 big companies banded together to found the Pan-European Pension Association.
The research also found they will receive half the pension benefits that Italy's 60-somethings are getting or are poised to get.
After the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released its May 2005 report that found significant conflicts of interest within the pension consulting industry, Reps.
Founded in 2009 with an eye toward harnessing the intelligence talent in Israel for use in the corporate sector, Kela does work for insurance companies, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds, but it has found its services are greatly in demand by hedge funds.
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This time, has Allianz, Germany's biggest insurer, found the distributor it wants for its life policies and pension plans?
Among 19 consultants who sold services to money managers, none were found to fully disclose the nature of those relationships to pension funds.
In a study of 26 blue-chip Japanese firms which do their accounts the American way, Mr Marable found that, on average, the assets in their pension funds covered only 60% of the projected benefits.
And new fund-raising improved only marginally as pension funds, foundations, endowments and other limited partners (LPs) found it difficult to commit additional capital to PE fund general partners (GPs) following years without a pickup in investments and exits.
Often the pension advisers fail to reveal these conflicts of interest to their clients, the SEC found.
We suggested this approach to the SEC because we have found that consultants subject to conflicts universally attempt to keep this information from their pension clients.
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The Ombudsman, Ann Abraham, found ten examples of maladministration which she said had contributed to the devastating losses suffered by pension savers with the Equitable after the society was forced to close in 2000.
It isn't clear how many of the more than 3, 000 local government pension systems follow the same practice, although a survey this January by Pew of 61 large cities found nearly half didn't make their full contributions.
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Many companies have found that diminishing returns on stock market investments have made it too expensive to top up their final salary pension funds.
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