Editor of the Financial Analysts Journal and chair of Ennis Knupp & Associates, Richard Ennis, believes contemporary asset allocation schemes are becoming unwieldy for many decision makers because of the proliferation and splintering of investment categories, and advocates an approach that relies more on empirical evidence than on assumptions or intuition.
As concerns in private credit mount, Colorado PERA CIO and COO Amy McGarrity says the pension fund isn’t seeing any strains in its growing allocation to the asset class, arguing that long-term investors are shielded from the risks because they can lock up their capital to weather market cycles.
The $50 billion pension fund for employees of United Parcel Service, which has a preference for managed account relationships with its managers, is poised to increase its allocation to risk assets.
Already OPTrust’s portfolio can best be described as resilient. But CIO James Davis, who started his career in October 1987, expects global macro economic changes from this crisis that we have never seen before and he wants to position the portfolio for whatever is around the corner.
Looking back at the portfolios of large institutional investors during and after the dot.com crash and the GFC, CEM Benchmarking, reveals commonality in the portfolios that thrived. For both events the top quartile returns were more than 2 per cent higher than the bottom quartile. Analysing the asset allocation and behaviour of investors showed two clear themes: top quartile performers had more defensive allocations pre-crash; and rebalancing is a tailwind for performance.
From December to mid-March of this year New Zealand Super lost 20 per cent of its assets. It’s the second time in less than 18 months the fund has experienced a significant drop in assets but in an example of how good governance and process can allow for counter cyclical behaviour the fund is now buying equities.
In the space of three months the State of Wisconsin Investment Board has moved its portfolio from “defensive” to “offensive” as it “leans into the opportunities” presented by the coronavirus crisis. CIO and executive director David Villa, and deputy, Rochelle Klaskin spoke to Amanda White about the portfolio and how the large internal team is managing remotely.
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