Indianapolis Power & Light Co. is using Merrill Lynch Consults' Asset Information and Performance Service to review the asset allocation of its $200 million defined benefit plan, said Max Califar, vice president-human resources.
AIMS provides investment management performance reviews and manager peer group analysis for use by the plan's pension committee. Changes to the asset allocation could follow.
The nation's private pension system could be an ``unintended casualty'' of efforts to overhaul the tax code, a report by the American Academy of Actuaries said today.
The current tax structure gives incentives to employers and employees to put aside money for pensions, notes Robert E. Heitzman Jr., senior pension fellow. But if ``all forms of savings were given tax-favored treatment, employment-linked pensions would be jeopardized,'' Mr. Heitzman said.
The report was released one day before a Republican task force headed by Jack Kemp is expected to release its report on tax reform.
The actuaries' group recommends tax overhaul proposals include a partial tax credit for employer contributions to pension plans, or mandated employer-sponsored retirement plans.
Harris Investment Management launched its first market-neutral fund, seeding it with a total of $8 million from a pension fund client and part of the cash component of the firm's own collective enhanced equity index fund, said Donald G.M. Coxe, president and CIO. Harris will market the new fund to both pension funds and corporations for their corporate cash.
The market-neutral strategy is 50% long stocks and 50% short stocks; it expects to outperform cash-type instruments regardless of stock market movements.
