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.
A slowdown in private equity fundraising and shrinking carry payouts are pushing experienced professionals towards pension funds, handing institutional investors an unexpected recruitment advantage. Sarah Rundell looks at the funds in hiring mode and how demand for people experienced in fund, co-investment and secondaries remains buoyant.
Canada's public pension funds pay their executives huge salaries. But as performance continues to trail benchmarks, salary levels are coming under more scrutiny. Sarah Rundell takes a deep dive into the complex world of how to incentivise and reward pension fund executives.
Danish pension giant Arbejdsmarkedets Tillægspension (ATP) has been urged to cull risk, establish formal portfolio benchmarks and reduce private markets exposures, according to an external review committee which handed down a 536-page report into the fund’s investment operations after an 18-month review. Following the release of the report by the board this week, co-author of the review Andrew Ang unpacks the findings with Top1000funds.com.
Rising geopolitical risks and an AI correction could severely impact the value of the $2.2 trillion Norwegian sovereign fund, according to its chief executive Nicolai Tangen, who went so far as to say the fund could "disappear." The warning is a stark one for the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, whose 70 per cent equity allocation leaves it heavily exposed to any sharp correction in global and particularly US tech markets.
Australia’s Future Fund has highlighted strong performance in global equities, particularly in Japan and emerging markets, as a key return driver for its last reporting period. Despite increased concentration in EM indexes, new CIO Richard Brandweiner said it could lead to more alpha opportunities. Meanwhile, CEO Raphael Arndt said the time has come for a “fresh leader” to steer the fund as he prepares to close out a close to two-decade tenure with the $255 billion investor.
In a Letter to the Editor, Stefano Cavaglia and Donald Raymond argue the reported performance gains using TPA are not only plausible but that TPA-like strategies, such as applying an optimizing total portfolio overlay, can provide significant benefits without massive governance changes.
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FIS 2026 at Stanford University