G7 agreement shows benefits of engaging policymakers

Fiona Reynolds, managing director at the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) discusses why it’s in everyone’s interests for more investor voices to be heard between now and November before the world’s nations converge at COP21 in Paris.   The announcement that the G7 leading industrial nations have agreed to cut greenhouse gases by phasing out the use of … Read more

Australian funds look to collective DC

The $2 trillion Australian superannuation industry continues to evolve, with the move to collective defined contribution the latest product innovation for pension funds. While the industry is largely defined contribution, it hasn’t been good at providing retirement income products. Now, a number of Australian funds that have had both defined benefit and defined contribution plan … Read more

European investment plan requires public private collaboration

The two largest institutional investors in the Netherlands, PGGM and APG, have responded to the European Commission’s investment plan, urging the commission to call on institutional investors to collaborate on the investment proposal. However they also warn that institutional investors are not just a “subsidising entity” and the Juncker Plan is best executed as a … Read more

Why Andrew Ang joined Blackrock

Andrew Ang believes factor investing is a more efficient way to organise a portfolio as it allows liquid and illiquid strategies to be managed across the portfolio. It also has the added benefit of honing managers on value creation. He’s been working with a handful of investors while Professor of Finance at Columbia University on … Read more

The power of engagement

It is called the “CalPERS’ Effect” but it could easily be called the asset owner effect, or the institutional investor effect, or the power of engagement effect. Wilshire, which is a consultant to the $300 billion Californian fund CalPERS, has provided an update on its study measuring the effect of engagement on a targeted list of companies called the Focus List.