Alternatives increase as investors manage to outcomes

Investor allocations to alternatives will increase over the next three years as the focus on outcome-oriented investments heightens, according to respondents in the annual conexust1f.flywheelstaging.com /Casey Quirk Global Fiduciary CIO sentiment survey. The second annual survey, which included respondents from 56 asset owners with combined assets of $3 trillion, showed an accelerating trend to moving … Read more

Organisational change: asset owners 2.0

A key ingredient for success in any organisation is strong leadership. It is common in the corporate world for the chief executive to change every five to 10 years as the organisation evolves. Are the same principles true for large institutional investors?     Roger Urwin, global head of investment content at Towers Watson, who … Read more

The rise of the foreign trustee

Which developed world pension fund will become the first to have a Chinese national sit on its board? The debate on board diversity has focused on gender, race and age, but in future it could extend to having representatives of the countries your fund would most like to invest in. As funds travel along the … Read more

Economic growth outlook positive but integrity needs work

The outlook for economic growth this year is markedly positive, compared to last year, but capital market integrity is not improving, according to the opinions of more than 6,000 CFA Institute members. The CFA Institute global markets sentiment survey, measures the views of its members on market integrity and economic issues. This year’s survey, which … Read more

World Economic forum identifies global risks

The World Economic Forum’s 2014 Global Risk report, has implications for investors.   The report, released ahead of next week’s meeting in Davos, highlights how global risks are not only interconnected by also have systemic impacts. The risks were broken down into economic, environmental, geo-political and social. The seven economic risks were: fiscal crises in … Read more

Focusing on the long term: asset owners need to step up

Asset owners must step up and “join the fight” to end the focus on short-term results by companies and investment firms. Four practical steps to make this happen are outlined by president and chief executive of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Mark Wiseman, and global managing director of McKinsey, Dominic Barton, in the most recent … Read more