The Ann Kaplan professor of business, finance and economics at Columbia University, Andrew Ang, who also consults to the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, describes the shortcomings of research on asset allocation and illiquid assets, and how to overcome behavioural biases.
CalSTRS is in contract negotiation with a hedge fund consultant, with a view to hiring global macro hedge funds as part of its innovation portfolio, and the next tasks will be reviewing commodities and non-traditional benchmarks, as the innovation and risk unit comes of age.
Some animals instinctively gather as a herd, apparently pension funds are such animals. A new asset allocation study by academics at Maastricht and Yale, presented at the ICPM discussion forum last week, reveals the mob behaviour by funds when it comes to asset allocation, leaving way for security selection to be the differentiator in returns.
A constant whispering in the hallway of pension plans is how to prepare for the inevitable move from a defined benefit to defined-contribution structure. But fiduciaries shouldn’t be scared, the game’s the same, at least psychologically.
The A$38 billion ($40bn) AustralianSuper fund has made an active decision not to engage in formal strategic rebalancing, instead looking to a dynamic allocation of assets, chief investment officer, Mark Delaney (pictured), explains.
While some funds move towards more defensive allocations, executive director of the San Francisco Employees Retirement System, Gary Amelio (pictured), says the fund will maintain its belief in equities as it embarks on its five-year asset liability study.
Top1000funds.com is the market leading news and analysis site for the world’s largest institutional investors. It focuses on leading the global investment industry to continuous improvement through case studies of best practice in governance and decision making, portfolio construction and efficient portfolio management, fees and costs, and sustainable investing.
The publication pushes the industry to question whether status quo processes and behaviours to tackle risks and opportunities will be sufficient in the future, and actively campaigns for diversity, sustainability, transparency, innovation and better alignment of fees in the investment industry.
Top1000funds.com is read by investment professionals in more than 40 countries.
Uncategorised posts