CalPERS may have doubled the fees it pays for active management in public equities, but the alpha it generates has quadrupled, says global equity head Simiso Nzima, who has spent three years pruning a roster of nearly 100 managers down to a tightly scored handful. La Caisse's Mario Therrien describes a parallel discipline, using external managers not just for returns but as a "window to the world" on emerging strategies, from quant investing to AI.
The global economy is increasingly bifurcated between the US, Europe and Asia and how the growth projections and geopolitical risks between these regions plays out is of increasing interest to institutional investors. The Fiduciary Investors Symposium in Singapore will look at the return and impact opportunities in the region, and the importance of Asia in the global economy.
It will examine the global economy in the context of the west adapting to a rising Asia; technology decoupling between the US and China; the impact of COVID-19 on Asian economies; the leading role of Asia in technology, smart cities, digitalisation and fintech; ESG risks and opportunities; and portfolio resilience to different macro-economic regimes.
The conference enables asset owners from around the world to explore investment themes, risks and opportunities with their global peers, and explore cutting edge approaches to risk management, liquidity management and portfolio construction.
The path of US inflation hinges on the future of the Federal Reserve, with leading Harvard economist and former Obama administration Council of Economic Advisers chair Jason Furman warning that another variable for inflation is whether the central bank can remain independent.
Loomis Sayles’ Aziz Hamzaogullari has questioned whether asset allocators are giving private equity more credit than it is worth, saying the case for investing in PE rests on flawed return measurement, hidden risks and high fees and that public equities should be treated with the same “patience” that PE receives.
Global governments are partnering with private investors to boost their domestic infrastructure and become more self-sufficient in a geopolitically fragmented world, according to Ben Way, global head of Macquarie Asset Management, who said that constrained public balance sheets are increasingly reliant on private capital to meet their infrastructure needs.
Investors are seeking better performance attribution in private markets to better understand underlying return drivers – especially in private equity, where metrics such as IRR or multiples are increasingly criticised for being opaque. HarbourVest made the case for an alternative attribution method at FIS Harvard.
The looming SpaceX IPO has put the spotlight firmly on the so-called ‘space economy’, but asset owners have been urged to exercise caution about investing in a sector that still resembles the wild west, with no legal or governance framework to protect capital. That’s not to say money will not be made, but it might not be in the areas investors first expect.
This event looks at the challenges long-term investors face in an environment of disruption including ongoing geopolitical risk and shifts in global economy dynamics. By accessing faculty of England’s most esteemed university, this event will leave investors empowered to tackle disruption in their portfolios and working lives.
The global economy is increasingly bifurcated between the US, Europe and Asia and how the growth projections and geopolitical risks between these regions plays out is of increasing interest to asset owners. This event looks at the return and impact opportunities in the region, and the importance of Asia in the global economy.
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FIS 2026 at Stanford University