Institutional investors have played down the impact that President Trump's executive order to limit the power of proxy advisors will have on their investment processes, with pension funds suggesting proxy inputs only form a part of their voting decisions. However, the development feeds into an ongoing crimping of investor power.
WTW’s Thinking Ahead Institute has developed an alternative attribution tool giving investors a view on the long-term drivers of performance. Tim Hodgson explains the benefits of the open source tool including improved conversations between managers and asset owners about return drivers and providing clarity on how ESG objectives are managed.
Sarah Maynard global head of DEI at CFA Institute explains why the investment sector needs to operationalise a structured DEI approach and how including DEI in codes and standards will help bring about much-needed change.
Size matters in institutional investing, but how exactly does it result in better returns? Research by CEM Benchmarking shows large, internalised, active investors produce more net value added than small, externalised, passive investors. Internalising private markets is a significant predictor of value add.
Fiduciary duty principles must be adaptive to change and the US has fallen behind. The authors argue that a more comprehensive application of fiduciary duty principles in the US is necessary to protect the life savings of ERISA plan participants. In particular impartiality is important for pension plans.
The largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, resembles an index fund and is not making the most of its tracking error boundaries according to a review of the active management of the fund by a team of specialists who recommended more clarity of mandate.
Henry Jones, who will resign as president of the CalPERS board on January 21, leaves behind a new mindset at the fund of tackling big systemic issues including sustainability and racism.
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