Active managers who are increasingly on the ropes as beta strategies encroach upon their alpha returns can take heart from the latest research from index provider MSCI. In the latest insight from Barra, Dynamic Allocation Strategies Using Minimum Volatility: Detecting Regime Shifts to Enhance Active & Passive Investing, Philippe Durand and John Regino argue that
Sally Bridgeland, chief executive of BP Pension Trustees, the £18.5-billion ($28.7 billion) pension fund for employees of one the world’s biggest oil companies, only works part-time. She made the decision after a near-fatal skiing accident when she says her life passed before her. She is BP’s first group leader to do so and is evangelical
In his first major announcement as governor of the Bank of England, Canadian-born Mark Carney says ultra-low interest rates are here to stay. This couldn’t be worse news for pension funds, according to pension’s expert, Ros Altmann, but private-public collaboration on infrastructure could help ease the pain. The prospect of another three years of
United States equities and real estate were the strongest suits at the $26-billion Hartford-based State of Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds (CRPTF) out of an entire portfolio that posted 11.6 per cent in the fiscal year ending June 2013. Now the manager of Connecticut’s six retirement plans and nine trust funds is developing opportunistic
Oregon State Treasury, which runs $80 billion worth of state investments including the $62-billion Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund, is preparing the portfolio for a new dawn. John Skjervem, chief investment officer of the treasury’s investment division, sees the speed and extent of the recent sell-off in fixed income as “a shot across the bow”
Deficit and underfunding at the £6.7-billion ($10.4-billion) pension fund for employees of United Kingdom retailer Marks and Spencer had long weighed down one of the high street’s best known names. But a sustained, conservative investment strategy characterised by a “keen focus on risk management” and “an understanding of the scheme’s liabilities” has helped to turn
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