Pension design, regulation barriers to long-term investing

Fundamental questions of pension system design and regulation are serious barriers to fulfilling the global long-term investing agenda, according to a panel of major European asset owner heads at the Fiduciary Investors Symposium in Amsterdam. Eloy Lindeijer, chief of investment management of €140-billion ($191-billion) Dutch investor PGGM said “maybe politicians still don’t realise that there … Read more

PFZW: new beliefs
for a new world

The €140-billion ($191-billion) Dutch pension fund PFZW is in the midst of completely rethinking its investment philosophy, Jaap van Dam, managing director of PGGM, told the Fiduciary Investors Symposium in Amsterdam. PGGM manages the investments of PFZW and has traditionally guided them. Van Dam explains that ownership of the investment strategy is to shift decidedly … Read more

Worst case portfolio keeps HOOPP on track

The enviable surplus of the $47.4 billion Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, HOOPP, is down to a key focus on what David Long, senior vice president and co-chief investment officer at the fund, attributes to a “single strategic objective:” namely to pay benefits at a reasonable cost to the fund’s 247,000 workers in Ontario’s hospital … Read more

Global economic growth evolving

Olga Pomerantz, economist at Chicago-based William Blair & Company, offered delegates at  the Fiduciary Investors Symposium reasons to be positive. Pomerantz says the factors inhibiting growth from 2009 until last year have altered and that global economic growth is starting to evolve. She notes stronger growth in developed markets, where growth in the US has … Read more

Hybrids win governance race: Wisconsin research findings

Hybrid pension schemes, combining both defined contribution and defined benefit characteristics, are best for governance because they align interest of both employees and sponsors argue David Villa, chief investment officer of the $91-billion State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) and Sorina Zahan, partner and chief investment officer of Chicago-based Core Capital Management, speaking at Conexus … Read more

Finding wriggle room in North Dakota

The monthly income pouring into the $1.3-billion North Dakota Legacy Fund arrives as thick and fast as fracking technology and new pipeline networks can draw the state’s oil and gas reserves to the surface. But investment strategy at the fund, set up in 2008 when it was portioned 30 per cent of the tax dollars … Read more