Lower management fees and higher returns defined the latest selection process at the Swedish Fund Selection Agency in its latest awarding of active global equity mandates to 12 managers, its largest and most ambitious €20 billion ($23 billion) procurement so far.
Pension funds need a generation of investment professionals that are willing to be brave and less conservative than their predecessors if they are to move to the systems level perspectives on investment that is required for better returns and societal outcomes.
Pension funds around the globe should be putting their high-risk capital towards supporting venture funds that have a track record of seeing value in people, according to Vivienne Ming, Silicon Valley technologist, entrepreneur and theoretical neuroscientist. Ming believes that AI can be used to solve poverty, mental health, inequality and even predict who will spread COVID-19. She says technology can make all of our lives better.
Michelle Ostermann, managing director of investments at the £30 billion Railpen discusses the pension fund's continued evolution including ongoing organisational change, more assets in-house, a new investment decision making framework, and an increased allocation to private assets.
The Canadian model, revered world over for its supreme pension management, is not low cost despite that being one of its oft-described traits. New research by CEM Benchmarking and McGill University shows that these funds are cost efficient, rather than being low cost. Their aim is to be high net performers, not low cost.
Responsible investors need to take into account how fund management and investment structures may be exacerbating wealth and income disparities, as well as systemic market risk. Raphaele Chappe and Delilah Rothenberg from the Predistribution Initiative have some suggestions for how PE could be adjusted in this regard and how building back better post-COVID-19 requires a more thoughtful model.
It is deeply concerning that the internet is beholden to only a few companies that control information, says Denise Hearn author of The Myth of Capitalism, who says that the dominance of large players in financial services is also a problem.
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