The $850 million Battelle Memorial Institute pension fund, Columbus, Ohio, may raise its international allocation to double digits, said Damian D. Sung, director-investment management. The fund is considering an international allocation of 10% - up from the current 6% - and all in equities. He expects a decision in the first quarter on whether to begin a search. The fund isn't using a consultant. Bankers Trust now manages the fund's entire international allocation in an MSCI EAFE index fund. He said the fund hasn't decided whether to place the new allocation in active or passive portfolios. Assets could come from cash, although it hasn't been decided. ING (U.S.) Capital Holdings, a U.S. subsidiary of the $220 billion Dutch financial conglomerate Internationale Nederlanden Groep, today announced the formation of ING Capital Advisors. The new firm offers a spectrum of floating-rate corporate loan investment products to traditional institutional investors as well as banks and insurance companies. According to ING, the firm is the first to provide institutional investors with direct access to the floating-rate corporate loan market on a pooled, pass-through basis. Previously, investors could only gain exposure to this market segment through a handful of retail mutual funds or through specialized structured vehicles. ING Capital Advisors will be based in New York and Los Angeles.Michael McAdams, senior vice president at Pilgrim America and the founding portfolio manager of the Pilgrim Prime Rate Trust, will be CIO. He has not yet been replaced at Pilgrim. A General Accounting Office report released today says federal government workers, especially higher paid employees, are not contributing enough into the Federal Thrift Savings Plan to maintain their standard of living after retirement. The report by the investigative arm of Congress criticizes the lack of education plan administrators provide government workers on the importance of contributing to the plan; administrators say they don't have the authority to provide such education. ``The Thrift Savings Plan is pivotal in enabling employees (especially higher-income employees) to achieve their retirement income goal,'' the report said.
Nearly two-thirds of American workers say they have saved something for retirement, but only one-third of those saving have tried to figure out how much they'll need to retire, a new study released today says. The Retirement Confidence Survey was conducted by The Employee Benefit Research Institute and Greenwald & Associates.Twenty-two percent of current workers said they will have enough money for retirement, while 52% said they were somewhat confident they would. But most workers have not set savings goals for retirement, said EBRI President Dallas Salisbury.
