As themes take hold: the trick is not to pay too much
Thematic investment strategies are easy enough to understand but not so easy to implement. The curse of the thematic manager is the curse of overpaying.
Thematic investment strategies are easy enough to understand but not so easy to implement. The curse of the thematic manager is the curse of overpaying.
The demographics driving the funds management industry, of ageing populations almost everywhere, are more complicated than you think. Greg Bright spoke to the Asia Pacific leader for Towers Watson, Bob Charles, who is a demographics expert, about the real demographic problems facing the world.
Bonds are the favoured asset class at 53 per cent among European sustainable and responsible investors with equities dropping to 33 per cent, according to a Eurosif SRI report.
With bond yields at historic lows, particularly in the US, pension funds have been searching for new forms of downside protection to reduce tail risk, boosting demand for certain types of hedge funds in the process. In the US, too, where demand is invariably met by a quick supply of new products, specialist ‘tail-risk funds’
Foundation and endowment funds are allocating the largest percentage of alternatives to their portfolios, with public funds coming second ahead corporate plans in third place.
Indexes are important for pension funds. They benchmark the fund’s performance against goals and peers. They allow the fund’s managers to be measured and often times they decide the managers’ remuneration. You would think, then, that there must be a lot of science behind their use.
FIS Singapore 2026