The latest
Investor Profile

Seeking partners in Alaska

The $46-billion Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation (APFC) will launch PCIO, a private equity version of its successful external chief-investment-officer partnerships, and is looking for partners now. When the fund moved to a risk-based factor allocation a few years ago, it allocated mandates under its special opportunities bucket to five managers – PIMCO, GMO, Bridgewater, AQR […]
Amanda WhiteAugust 2, 2013
Uncategorised posts

Eijffinger’s decade of financial repression

Financial repression will define the economic landscape for at least another decade, according to professor of financial economics at Tilburg University, Sylvester Eijffinger, which has serious implications for institutional investors. Eijffinger, who also is also a visiting professor at Harvard, sits on the monetary experts panel of the European Union and is an adviser to […]
Amanda WhiteAugust 2, 2013
Uncategorised posts

Let’s talk about underfunding

Even using the assets of the pension plan was not enough of a leg-up to save the city of Detroit from bankruptcy. As the last words in the song Put your hands up for Detroit by Fedde Le Grand say, it is system shutdown. The fiscal demise of this city may be a lesson for […]
Amanda WhiteJuly 26, 2013
Asset Allocation

Assessing reality in US public funds

Distinct regulation of United States public pension funds that links the liability discount rate to expected return on assets, rather than to the riskiness of their promised benefits, sets them apart – in a bad way. US public funds have underperformed other pension fund cohorts because of higher allocations to risky assets. Arguably, regulation is […]
Amanda WhiteJuly 19, 2013
Uncategorised posts

Disparity in policy portfolio risk profiles

A policy portfolio is a poor reflection of investor preferences, argued Peter Bernstein. This philosophical question has now been empirically tested by MIT’s Mark Kritzman, who shows the inter-temporal disparity of a policy portfolio’s risk profile. He suggests a simple framework for addressing this deficiency. Kritzman encourages investors to replace rigid policy portfolios with flexible investment policies. […]
Amanda WhiteJuly 17, 2013
Emerging Markets

Active management and ideal weighting in emerging markets

From a strategic asset allocation point of view, AustralianSuper is one of the most aggressive investors in emerging markets, particularly Asia. About a quarter of the $43-billion fund is in international equities, and nearly half of that is in emerging markets. Equities is the vehicle for AustralianSuper’s emerging market exposure because growth remains the reason […]
Amanda WhiteJuly 12, 2013
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