The long-running dispute between Standard Life and its staff over changes to the pension scheme appears to be over, following agreement with staff.

Some signatories to the Principles for Responsible Investment have come under fire for failing to abide by their own high-minded rules

The debate on whether the Association of British Insurers (ABI) called for a ban on commission in its submission on the retail distribution review to the Financial Services Authority rumbles on.

Blair’s tenure has had some successes, but will largely be seen as a missed opportunity to bring greater coherence and structure to the pensions arena, and engage the average man with pension issues, according to some industry experts.

There has been some progress and we have seen DC grow steadily, but there have been some problems such as the abolition of dividend tax credit for pensions. We have also seen initiatives on pension reform and personal accounts – the principles behind are sound but we remain concerned that the government is not getting the detail right. The restoration of the earnings link to state pension was very welcome.”

The Pensions Regulator could fail to achieve its main pensions scheme governance aims if it insists on focusing on upping trustee knowledge rather than bringing schemes’ investment capabilities into the equation as well.

BT Pension Scheme (BTPS), the UK’s largest company pension scheme, worth £38.4bn, has announced that its 2006 investment return of 12.7% significantly outperformed its benchmark return of 11.3% and the average investment return for the 50 largest UK pension funds of 10.7%.

Bigger than Eurovision and better than Christmas, is one way you might describe the Pension and Investment Provider Awards 2007.

Sustainable investing is driven by long-term environmental, social, political and economic factors. By the nature of its approach, sustainable investment undoubtedly leads to positive change, with the ability to generate long-term outperformance.

As Hollywood gears up for a likely sequel to the 1987 film Wall Street about money-crazed mogul Gordon Gekko, investment house Ashburton has said history is also repeating itself 20 years on in the financial world.

Argonaut Capital, the first joint venture set up by Resolution Asset Manage­ment, has seen its assets under management rocket to more than £1bn, less than two years after launch.

Hedge funds have come under fire from asset managers, consultants and pensions funds across Europe, with many saying the hype is unjustified and prices must come down. However, most of the critics accepted that allocations to hedge funds in pension fund portfolios would probably grow over the next few years.

The global bond market presents a compelling case for investors anxious to generate returns from their fixed income allocation. Portfolio managers can unearth particularly interesting opportunities in the euro and US dollar-denominated markets, if they have the research capabilities to find them.

Fidelity has appointed home-grown fund manager Sanjeev Shah to take over from Anthony Bolton in managing its Special Situations Fund. Shah will gain full control of the £3.7bn fund in the New Year.

Private equity is the favourite type of alternative asset class, beating fine wine and hedge funds, according to a Trustnet poll of private investors and financial advisers.

A battle is brewing among self-invested personal pension (Sipp) providers over annual management charges and commission levels as accusations about “mischief makers” and firms breaking the treating customers fairly (TCF) guidelines reach boiling point.

Nearly two thirds (64%) of advisers have seen an increase in their self-invested personal pension (Sipp) business since A-day, with one in seven (14%) saying their sales have doubled or more.

The cost of managing a pension scheme has grown at a faster rate than any other business overhead over the last five years, according to the majority of schemes polled in Capita Hartshead’s Annual Pension Scheme Administration Survey.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has blasted the government for failing to live up to its promise over the implementation of personal accounts (PAs), shattering the so-called consensus and goodwill that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) always maintained was present among industry bodies regarding the reforms.

Friends Provident has added two intermediary arms to its business – Sesame Group, one of the largest providers of support services to financial advisers in the UK, and high net worth IFA firm Pantheon Financial.

The number of pension schemes adopting a liability-driven investment (LDI) strategy appears to be growing slowly, but this could be due to reluctance to disclose investment methods rather than the fact that an LDI strategy is seen as unattractive.

While European cities battle it out to attract pension funds as their governments press hard for favourable cross-­border scheme legislation, doubt is cast over pension trustees’ appetite for such schemes.

Thirty years ago, the world was a very different place. In 1978, the environment could still support Smash, the party seven and dubious personal hygiene.

According to the Office for National Statistics, 380,000 people emigrated from the UK for a year or more in 2005 (this compares with an estimated 565,000 migrants who arrived to live in the UK for at least a year).

Bad news about tax relief should be turned into a rallying call for reappraising asset allocation in an effort to forestall any greater pensions crisis and meet future liabilities

I was reading an interesting ­article in the press the other weekend about something that apparently really happened on a university campus somewhere in the US (I think). A female student walking through the university grounds claimed to have witnessed two maths students shouting out complex equations to each other as they were cycling between lectures. I think the point that was being made was these cycling students were nerds.

Antoinette Odoi talks to Britannia’s John Rogers about his vision for the future and his desire to build on previous successes

Kalpana Fitzpatrick talks to Charlie Gordon, deputy pensions ombudsman, about the challenges he faces, including the departure of ombudsman David Laverick

The case of Phizackerley v HMRC, involving a nil-rate discretionary trust, served to highlight the complexities of the inheritance tax system and how getting good advice is essential

Under new European rules, portfolio managers can offer clients full market exposure to their selected benchmark while diversifying active risk to extract higher returns

The government of New Labour, and in particular chancellor Gordon Brown, has turned a pension system that was the envy of the world into a shambles in just one decade

Respondents to this survey seemed strangely reticent to reveal their BPO strategies, despite acknowledging the value they have added

Technology is a main factor in making any changes to a company’s operations. This is where business process outsourcing can step in and take the strain

The future sustainability of BPO lies in outsourcers being useful partners to businesses from the early stages, such as R&D, testing and product launch

Cutting costs used to be the main reason for choosing to outsource, but times have changed and companies are now looking at outside resources as problem-solving partners

The initial excitement surrounding LDI may have died down, but it is still steadily growing in popularity

Liability-driven investment looks likely to become a feature of the pensions world, as the rationale for moving away from bonds and towards swaps becomes clearer

Liability-driven investment (LDI) has established its place in trustees’ risk management tool set. But is it working? Bobby Riddaway reviews its performance

HILTON SUPRA: Hedge funds have essentially been around for very many years, it’s not a new phenomenon. It does go back to a well-known gentleman by the name of Alfred Winslow Jones, who, in the late 1940s, having been at Harvard and then a writer at Fortune magazine, wanted to offset the risk that was in the market. Essentially what he was doing was buying the stocks he liked and finding a mechanism to sell the stocks he didn’t like. That coined the first phrase of a hedge fund, which was very much aligned to the long-short equity space. Over the years that evolved and various strategies developed. The real pick-up was in the early 1980s and through the 1990s, in what we call ‘specialist managers’ or entrepreneurs who were running small, unconstrained firms whereby they are manufacturing different sources of beta and alpha. Essentially a hedge fund is an entrepreneur with skill, able to assess risk and pass the advantage onto the investors.

Douglas Jones: The reality is that it is too early to say. One of the outcomes might be that there is more balance in the Sipp market. Now Sipps are moving into the regulatory world, we have to be clearer about both their benefits and risks.

Entering retirement and beginning the distribution phase requires a major change in financial tactics and mindset if an individual is to secure a sound income

Many providers and advisers are still struggling to see how stochastic calculations can support financial advice and stimulate further investment in pensions. Christopher Read attempts to demystify this new approach

How can trustees of pension schemes judge whether an employer has the financial backup to sustain its scheme?

Risk-based decisions are increasingly necessary in a complex investment world making risk assessment for pension funds more important but also more complicated

By defining risk and managing it, investors can benefit from risky, skill-based strategies that can be powerful tools for generating returns

Diversifying into alternative asset classes can reduce risk but schemes must be careful not to lose money on overrated assets

With the right diversification, a high level of allocation to return-seeking assets does not necessarily entail exposure to a high level of risk

Henderson Global Investors has poached Albert Yang from Schroder Property Investment Management and appointed him director of institutional business, property.

Capital Cranfield Trustees has appointed Vernon Holgate as its director.

Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) has recruited Matt Gore from Prudential as chief administration officer.