Conflicts of Interest in Trustees' Management of Pension Funds—An Analysis of the Legal Framework

1985 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Richard Nobles
Keyword(s):  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Pension Funds

Private Pension Funds in Hungary

2005 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ichiro Iwasaki ◽  
Kazuko Sato
Keyword(s):  
Trade Unions ◽  
Pension System ◽  
Pension Reform ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Pension Funds ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Private Pension ◽  
Pension Scheme ◽  
Special Interest Groups ◽  
Governance Reform

The new pension system launched in Hungary in 1998 is epoch-making for having introduced a mandatory private pension scheme (MPPS). However, the political decision-making on pension reform and the scheme operations have been greatly influenced by conflicts of interests among ministries, political conflicts between parties, and the presence of special interest groups, including trade unions and financial institutions. This situation may have had a certain negative influence on the legal framework of the MPPS and on the management performance of private pension funds. In order for the MPPS to be sustainable in the future and to make insurance beneficiary profits a top priority, the corporate governance reform of pension funds and reinforcement of the monitoring system over them, and political neutralisation of the public pension system are necessary.

The impact of agency costs on the investment performance of Australian pension funds

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANTHONY D. F. COLEMAN ◽  
NEIL ESHO ◽  
MICHELLE WONG
Keyword(s):  
Agency Costs ◽  
Pension Fund ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Pension Funds ◽  
Performance Difference ◽  
Investment Performance ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Not For Profit ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

This paper evaluates the overall investment performance of Australian pension funds by examining the determinants of risk-adjusted performance, and the relationship between risk, returns, and expenses. Using quarterly return data for 225 pension funds comprising 68% of total prudentially regulated pension fund assets, we find significant differences exist across fund types. On both a net return and risk-adjusted performance basis, not-for-profit funds significantly outperformed for-profit funds over the seven years to June 2002. We suggest that the performance difference is consistent with the hypothesis that agency costs in for-profit funds (due to non-representative trustee board structures and potential board member conflicts of interest) are greater than agency costs in not-for-profit funds (with representative trustee boards).

scholarly journals Logic Analysis of How the Emergency Management Legal System Used to Deal with Public Emerging Infectious Diseases under Balancing of Competing Interests—The Case of COVID-19

Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 857
Author(s):  
Chao Zhang ◽  
Lei Hong ◽  
Ning Ma ◽  
Guohui Sun
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Emergency Management ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Public Interests ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Competing Interests

Development of measures for mitigating public emerging infectious diseases is now a focal point for emergency management legal systems. COVID-19 prevention and containment policies can be considered under the core goal of social and individual interests. In this study we analyzed the complexity between individual and public interests as they conflict when implementing disease preventative measures on an epidemic scale. The analysis was used to explore this complex landscape of conflicting social, public, and legal interests to quantify the potential benefits of public acceptance. Here we use the large-scale COVID-19 epidemic backdrop to examine legal norms of the emergency management legal framework. We find that the implementation of emergency management legal system measures involves the resolution of both direct and indirect conflicts of interest among public groups, individual groups, and various subsets of each. When competing interests are not balanced, optimal policies cannot be achieved to serve and safeguard shared social and community stability, whereas effective social outcomes are obtainable through the development of targeted policies as defined within the emergency management legal system. A balanced legal framework in regards to emergency management legal norms can more effectively serve to mitigate and prevent the continued spread of emerging infectious diseases. Further developing innovative procedural mechanisms as a means to ensure emergency response intervention should take into account the weighted interest of the different social parties to determine priorities and aims to protect legitimate public interests.

scholarly journals ONLINE REGULATION OF DISPUTES IN ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 14-17
Author(s):  
Artem M. Tsirin ◽  
◽  
Madina A. Tsirina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Electronic Commerce ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Dispute Resolution ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Online Dispute Resolution ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Online Regulation

This article on Online Dispute Resolution in E-Commerce provides a detailed analysis of the international legal framework for conciliation and online dispute resolution. The authors analyze the conceptual apparatus of online dispute resolution in the field of e-commerce, the subject of this category of disputes, as well as the person composition of their dispute resolution, including the relevant specializedorganizations, includingmediationcenters, andaspecializedentitiessuchasInternetombudsmen, e-commerceombudsmen and etc. Special attention is paid to the rules ensuring transparency of information about the functioning of platforms for online dispute resolution, and about the persons administering their activities. The article examines the online dispute resolution procedure, as well as the activities of online dispute resolution platforms and persons administering their activities, including their functional responsibilities. The authors come to the conclusion that at a certain stage of the introduction of digital technologies there is competition between legal norms and regulations and algorithms that mediate the use of these technologies. Unfortunately, both are subject to the threat of corruption. In this regard, a proposal is being formulated regarding the establishment of anti-corruption restrictions and obligations, and a requirements to avoid conflicts of interest with respect to persons administering online dispute resolution platforms.

scholarly journals Public Pension Fund Structure And Mechanisms: A Case Study Of The Tanzanian Pension Funds System

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 135
Author(s):  
Zubeda Chande Mpinga ◽  
Wim Westerman
Keyword(s):  
Pension Fund ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Pension Funds ◽  
Board Of Trustees ◽  
Public Pension ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
The Government ◽  
High Standards ◽  
And Performance

Good governance structures have become an issue of public interest, including public pension systems. This study assesses the pension funds governance in Tanzania, with a special focus on board of trustees’ issues. The growing interest referred to, is partly because the quality and performance of the funds trustees determines the income flows to which members are entitled and promised, as well as any shortfalls thereof, that may require interventions. Our findings suggest that board of trustees play an important role for funds governance and hence performance. The pension fund structure and mechanisms in Tanzania uphold high standards. Yet, a major issue is that the board selection seems to be politically motivated and that the government claims most board seats, making conflicts of interest likely to occur repeatedly. 

Some problems of applying conciliation procedures in the resolution of corporate disputes complicated by a foreign element

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-64
Author(s):  
SERGEY CHEKULAEV ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
International Agreements ◽  
Problem Situation ◽  
National Legislation ◽  
Creative Individual ◽  
Legislative Regulation ◽  
Problematic Issue ◽  
Negative Outcome

The article describes the perspectives for using mediation to resolve corporate disputes complicated by a foreign element, when it is necessary to resolve possible conflicts by reaching consensus between the parties. When using conciliation procedures, one should consider different states of the relevant national legislation and regional international agreements, and also take into account not only the interests and interpretation of the problem situation from the position of the participant – the party to the dispute, but also the legislative regulation based on the current legal framework. One problematic issue in this area is the existence of several legal approaches. Cooperation is often complicated by the likelihood of a negative outcome. Conflicts of interest can lead to unwanted consequences. One of the most effective ways for settling conflicts is the use of conciliation procedures: negotiations, mediation, mediation and judicial conciliation, as well as other procedures that do not contradict the current legislation. In general, mediation is seen as a flexible process that supports the autonomy of the parties, legal and non- legal approaches to problem solving and creative individual solutions. In addition, the issue of choosing conciliation procedure for resolving a dispute can be resolved by participants in corporate relations even before the conflict arises by fixing a mediation clause in the local documents of the organization.

scholarly journals Financing Disputes: Third-Party Funding in Litigation and Arbitration

2019 ◽  
pp. 465
Author(s):  
Rachel Howie ◽  
Geoff Moysa
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Risk Allocation ◽  
Asset Sales ◽  
Current State ◽  
Legal Fees ◽  
Party Funding ◽  
And Control

Third-party funding is an arrangement where an entity with no prior interest in the merits of a dispute provides funding to a party involved in the dispute. Traditionally, this funding was specifically to assist the party to the dispute by financing its legal fees and costs and could be obtained in a number of ways, such as through insurance or loans from financial institutions. Third-party funding has seen significant growth and an increase in sophistication in recent years, resulting in a departure from this traditional model concurrent with the rise of commercial litigation funders whose entire business is providing non-recourse investment in disputes. This article explores both the changes in models of third-party funding — which can include some or all of: (1) paying for legal fees and disbursements, (2) indemnifying against the risk of an adverse costs order, (3) stepping in to provide security for costs, (4) providing working capital or portfolio funding for bundles of claims, and (5) the rise of institutional third-party financing in Canada. In particular, this article will explore some of the specific applications of third-party funding to the energy industry, including “David and Goliath” claims, claims involving state asset expropriation, and the use of funding as a tool for risk allocation in asset sales. This article will also discuss the development and current state of the legal framework and case law in Canada with respect to third-party funding, along with third-party funding across different contexts and types of disputes. This includes the evolution of the law of maintenance and champerty and a discussion of key legal and ethical issues engaged by third-party funding arrangements including confidentiality, privilege, disclosure, conflicts of interest, and control of the dispute.

scholarly journals Activism failure of state-owned pension funds with board seats in Brazil

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 52-62
Author(s):  
Luiz Philippe Antoun de Almeida ◽  
Ricardo Pereira Câmara Leal
Keyword(s):  
Portfolio Management ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Positive Outcome ◽  
Pension Funds ◽  
Portfolio Diversification ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Governance Indicators ◽  
Good Corporate Governance ◽  
Political Alignment ◽  
Investor Activism

There is no clear positive and significant impact of institutional investor activism in Brazil possibly due to lack of skills, portfolio diversification motivations (Sonza & Granzotto, 2018), and conflicts of interest (Maranho, Leal, & Bortolon, 2020). This article investigates two high profile activism cases to assess these conjectures and address two very large and widely held Brazilian companies, which had good corporate governance indicators and were not state-controlled or closely regulated. The cases involve the two largest Brazilian pension funds, both sponsored by state-owned companies because their size and importance would make a positive outcome more likely. Yet, in both cases, the pensions funds failed in their attempts, even when acting jointly with other foreign and domestic institutional investors. The conclusion suggests that these investors may lack skills to assess the likelihood and consequences of events that occurred soon after their investment and that changed the fundamental nature of their investees. This study places the lack of activism success under the general discussion of the challenge of costly active versus passive portfolio management. Finally, there was no evidence of conflicts of interest and political alignment of these state-related pension funds in these two activism situations

scholarly journals “... Inconceivable, Unrealistic and Inhumane”. Internet Communication on the Flood Disaster in West Germany of July 2021 between Conspiracy Theories and Moralization— A Neopragmatic Explorative Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 11427
Author(s):  
Olaf Kühne ◽  
Lara Koegst ◽  
Marie-Luise Zimmer ◽  
Greta Schäffauer
Keyword(s):  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Conflict Theory ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Public Television ◽  
Internet Communication ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Explorative Study ◽  
Man And Nature ◽  
Stable Material

The aim of this article is an explorative study of the debate on the flood in the western part of Germany in July 2021, based on the comments found below the coverage of a German public television channel (ZDF) published on YouTube. Based on the neopragmatic framing of the analysis by connecting morality and mass media according to Luhmann, as well as Dahrendorf’s conflict theory, four patterns of interpretation were identified which illustrate a high moralization of the conflict: conclusions drawn from the storm (e.g., of a political nature, references to COVID-19, etc.), far-reaching, predominantly negative interpretations that place the storm and its consequences in the context of other negatively interpreted aspects, as well as rational and empathetic interpretations regarding expressions of sympathy and offers of help, and, ultimately, interpretations that range from climate change and planning failures to various conspiracy-theoretical claims of responsibility for the flooding. All in all, a transformation from conflicts of interest and facts to conflicts of identity and values is taking place, revealing two utopias: the utopia in which man and nature are in harmonic unity, as well as the utopia of the satisfaction of individual (material) needs in a stable material-spatial and legal framework. Science has an instrumental application in both utopias.

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