UPS: Risk assets and virtual happy hours
The $50 billion pension fund for employees of United Parcel Service, which has a preference for managed account relationships with its managers, is poised to increase its allocation to risk assets.
Velliv reset: More Danish funds lean into low cost DC model
In Denmark’s fiercely competitive commercial pension industry, Velliv was quick to take action with a root-and-branch overhaul of its pension provision when it experienced a drop in returns in the first half of 2024. It sacked its active equity managers and scaled up internal active strategies and low-cost, index-based investments instead, and stopped allocating to its $4.3 billion alternatives allocation. Thor Schultz Christensen, deputy CIO at Velliv, unpacks the change.
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The importance of resilience
Already OPTrust’s portfolio can best be described as resilient. But CIO James Davis, who started his career in October 1987, expects global macro economic changes from this crisis that we have never seen before and he wants to position the portfolio for whatever is around the corner.
CalPERS: Leverage, liquidity, inflation
In this Fiduciary Investors series podcast Amanda White talks to Ben Meng, chief investment officer of CalPERS, the largest pension fund in the United States. Meng, who oversees an investment office of nearly 400 employees and manages investment portfolios of roughly $400 billion, talks about the fund’s plan to achieve its 7 per return target - including the use of leverage – the liquidity management of the fund and how it could deploy capital during the crisis, and the inflation.
Harvard endowment goes net zero by 2050
The Harvard endowment is about half way through its transition to external investment management and will work with its service providers to implement the university’s new directive, to position the portfolio in line with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The importance of governance in a crisis
From December to mid-March of this year New Zealand Super lost 20 per cent of its assets. It’s the second time in less than 18 months the fund has experienced a significant drop in assets but in an example of how good governance and process can allow for counter cyclical behaviour the fund is now buying equities.
London’s CIV talks pooling progress
The coronavirus is an unprecedented test for the UK’s eight Local Government Pension Scheme asset pools. The London Collective Investment Vehicle, the pooling manager for the pension assets of London’s 32 boroughs has lost 15 per cent of the value of its portfolio for the month, and CEO Mike O’Donnell says ensuring liquidity and diversification are priorities in the months ahead.
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