In this challenging paper, Gordon Clark describes fiduciary duty as somewhat of a fantasy, because it looks to convention rather than forward to innovation in investment management.

A new EDHEC-Risk Institute survey of 104 European institutional investment professionals analyses the current uses and views on equity and fixed-income indexes.

A number of policy-makers have blamed the decade-long rise in commodity prices and recent market volatility on the growing influence of financial investors and called for new regulation restricting their participation in commodity markets. Market financialisation has also led investors to worry about higher integration between commodity and traditional financial markets weakening the portfolio benefits of commodity investment. EDHEC-Risk Institute Professor Joëlle Miffre addresses these concerns in a study released today entitled Long-Short Commodity Investing: Implications for Portfolio Risk and Market Regulation, produced with market data and support from CME [...]

China’s rapidly growing managed funds sector presents tremendous opportunities for domestic and international investors. As the industry changes in response to a variety of macro trends, fund managers face a number of challenges accessing this lucrative market. Understanding the evolving fund management landscape will be critical to their future success. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE REPORT

Jane Ambachtsheer, the partner and global head of responsible investment at Mercer, looks at the problem of investors being excluded from the development of a range of norms, codes, and conventions that seek to govern corporate behaviour.

Institutional investors once preoccupied largely with fund performance now take great interest in the manner by which hedge funds manage operational infrastructure, choose administrators and provide governance centered on best practices.  Bearing this in mind, the hedge fund industry is reinventing business models and best practices, with investor-friendly policies designed to enhance fund transparency, liquidity and efficient operations.  Investors, fund managers and regulators alike are looking to third-party fund administrators to provide objective risk assessment and reporting. Click here to download the report

The introduction of master-feeder pooling as part of the UCITS IV directive is set to spark wider interest in the concept of pooling, and this Vision paper examines the various options available to asset managers as they seek to build efficient and scalable fund structures. Click here to download the report

After the 2008 financial crisis, global central banks flooded the financial markets with liquidity to restore stability and set the stage for economic recovery. But these actions also raised investor concerns about inflation and fixed income investments. In the accompanying paper, “The Specter of Rising Interest Rates,” Northern Trust’s Jim McDonald discusses the current situation and explains why he thinks the risk of owning fixed income might be lower than some investors believe. Click here to download the report

For wealth managers, major industry trends are transforming the old concept of outsourcing into a fundamentally new way of delivering services, with advancing technology rapidly coming on-stream to weave together client and third-party provider relationships. Now, outsourcing is rapidly gaining traction as wealth managers are taking a longer look at how leveraging external resources can help them squeeze more value than ever from their business operations. Click here to download the report

Australia has one of the largest retirement fund pools per capita in the world. Given the significance of this relative to Australia’s total gross domestic product, the superannuation sector has come under unprecedented scrutiny with a series of major government reviews heightening the call for increased efficiency, greater engagement and ultimately improved returns. Understanding their implications will be critical for the industry as it looks to address the challenges and benefit from the opportunities this dynamic market presents. Click here to download the report.

Increased awareness of environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns is influencing the investment decisions of institutional investors more and more. Leveraging preliminary findings of new research by State Street Global Advisors, we examine the momentum behind this trend and the opportunities emerging in a rapidly shifting landscape. Click here to download the report

The European investment management industry is undergoing unprecedented change. The financial crisis and an evolving regulatory environment have reinforced cost pressures that have been building in recent years, creating an urgent need to achieve scale and efficiencies through a focus on core competencies. Already, a wave of consolidation has begun that is set to continue at pace, while asset managers embrace new ways to reengineer their business amid changing investor needs. The industry is likely to look very different within five years. Click here to download the report