Most public sector pension funds are subject to some sort of political interference, notwithstanding the best efforts of fund trustees and staff. Few, however, can rival the experience of America’s third-largest fund, the New York State Common Retirement Fund.
The $4.75 billion (£3 billion) UK Merchant Navy Officers Pension Fund has upgraded its relationship with consultant Towers Watson, having appointed the firm as its “delegated chief investment officer”, which is the first such arrangement for the consultant.
The biggest decision facing pension fund investment committees this year could well be their position on currencies, particularly the greenback and the euro. The currency decision is never an easy one to make and at the moment it seems particularly difficult as politics is overlaid onto market fundamentals.
The International Corporate Governance Network has published an updated set of guidelines for fiduciary investors to help assess and control corporate risk in their portfolios.
Corporate US pension funds are more advanced than their public fund counterparts in using dynamic asset allocation to effect in managing asset liability matching, says Russell Ivinjack, principal at Hewitt EnnisKnupp.
Our obsession with quarterly corporate earnings is a market failure, according to Colin Melvin, CEO of Hermes Equity Ownership Services, and can only be corrected by action from institutional asset owners.
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