The Pension Funds CD‐ROM 2000/2001 (version 2.0)

Citation

Reid, C.D. (2001), "The Pension Funds CD‐ROM 2000/2001 (version 2.0)", Online Information Review, Vol. 25 No. 5, pp. 329-337. https://doi.org/10.1108/oir.2001.25.5.329.11

This CD‐ROM encompasses on one disc the contents of two directories – Pension Funds and Their Advisors and International Pension Funds and Their Advisors. Information and full contact details are therefore provided for 2,500 major UK pension funds together with 800 advisers to these funds and also 2,700 international pension schemes together with approximately 1,500 advisers. The advantage of the disc over the printed volumes is that searches can be easily constructed using a variety of criteria including fund size, country, business activity, industry type and/or geographical region. Search results themselves can then be sorted according to different attributes such as annual contributions, capital value and members. The information compiled can be printed or downloaded in report form or as a mailing list, that again is another advantage of an electronic data source over a printed version. Another useful feature is the ability to add and save your own notes and comments on either the funds or their advisers.

Included on the disc are two other publications – People in Pensions and The Pensions Law Handbook. People in Pensions gives full biographical details of about 1,000 individuals prominent in the pensions industry. This section is full searchable by surname, forename and job title to which can be added job description and employer name. Unfortunately, there are no hyperlinks between the individuals listed in this database with those listed in the pension funds and advisers section which in some respects does rather reduce the value of its inclusion on the disc.

The Pensions Law Handbook is a guide to UK pensions legislation. It gives brief notes and occasional extended analysis on a wide range of practical issues with pointers for further information. This handbook also contains lists of other relevant publications – books, reports, periodicals and Web sites.

This product is, however, quite expensive. Depending on the content and functionality chosen, the price varies from £500 for a UK read‐only version up to just over £5,000 for the UK and international fully downloadable version. It is therefore more likely to be purchased by the industry than to find its way into more general reference collections.