APG, which manages investments for Dutch pension funds including the giant ABP, has finalised its strategic investment plan for 2010-2012. Amanda White spoke to managing director of strategic portfolio management, Ronald Wuijster, about why there is a continued trend to diversification away from developed market equities and how the portfolio construction methodology has altered.
Using a “Beta-Alpha Ratio” will yield more success in choosing managers ex-ante, compared to other methodology prevalent in the consulting industry, according to a new paper by Wurts Associates’ director of research, Eric Petroff, and research associate, Curtis Yasutake.
Co chair of global consulting at Russell, Don Ezra, says the progress towards best practice in investment governance is painfully slow. He spoke to Amanda White about why that path is worth enduring and some principles for creating a good governance structure.
The speed with which CalPERS can fulfil its desire to become a risk intelligent organisation has been given a reality check with discussions between the Californian fund and TIAA-CREF revealing it takes two to five years to fully implement an effective enterprise risk-management structure, and importantly a risk intelligent culture in an organisation.
The $35 billion Maryland State Retirement Agency will increase its internal investment team by 25 per cent as it looks to expand its coverage of market activities and take advantage of opportunities in the distressed market.
The latest performance persistence study by RogersCasey’s managing director, head of global portfolio solutions, Soonyong Park, which incorporates data from the volatile 2008 period, confirms the lack of persistence of returns in the equity asset management universes, and further, that it is more pronounced when long-term results are evaluated.
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.
Investor Profile