A policy portfolio is a poor reflection of investor preferences, argued Peter Bernstein. This philosophical question has now been empirically tested by MIT’s Mark Kritzman, who shows the inter-temporal disparity of a policy portfolio’s risk profile. He suggests a simple framework for addressing this deficiency. Kritzman encourages investors to replace rigid policy portfolios with flexible investment policies.
Hershel Harper received an early education in finance when he used to read Business Week in High School. The 43-year old now at the helm of the $27-billion South Carolina Retirement Systems, investing on behalf of South Carolina’s 350,000 public sector workers, says he knew back then he wanted to manage money: “I really am
While commodities are a controversial and problematic asset class to some investors, for others they are an ideal diversifier looking more attractive than ever. A mini-revival in commodity investing among US pension funds suggests the asset class may be enjoying a resurgence. The Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension System, Municipal Retirement System of Michigan
Designing and implementing concentrated, long-horizon investment mandates would support longer term thinking, align pension organisation’s goals with its stakeholders, and reduce transaction costs. This was one of the recommendations of a two-day workshop in Toronto last month, attended by a delegation of 80 pension fund executives from around the globe. Aimed at uncovering the meaning
The wrath of the European sovereign debt crisis may have left its mark on Italy in more ways than one, with both its financial and political scenes regularly sliding into crisis mode for the past year or two. However, the nation’s largest private pension investor, the €7.75-billion ($10.1-billion) Cometa fund, has firmly kept on track
The London Business School’s emeritus professor of finance Paul Marsh admits that you have to be slightly mad to embark on the kind of research detailed in the latest edition of Global Investment Returns Yearbook. This year Marsh and colleagues Elroy Dimson and Mike Staunton – Marsh describes the three of them, pictured below, as
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