The end of beauty contest active management?

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 … Read more

The fund behind London’s tube shifts

Transport for London, the organisation behind the network of buses, underground or “tube” trains, trams and bicycles that keep the United Kingdom’s capital city on the move, has a reputation for its generous employee benefits. But of all the staff perks on offer, including 30 days holiday a year and subsidised travel expenses, membership of … Read more

Italian fund rides out crisis in style

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 … Read more

Deconstructing risk parity portfolios

In this paper MSCI applies its framework for defining macroeconomic risk to strategic asset allocation, labelling assets as either risk premium or risk hedging. It applies the analysis to arisk-parity portfolio, showing how its relatively high exposure to inflation shocks makes it a risk premium portfolio.   To access the paper click here    

The complex puzzle of emerging markets

The emerging market story is a puzzle with many pieces. From an overall philosophical standpoint, the demographic and economic shifts are obvious reasons to have a weighting to emerging markets. But the complexity comes into play with the question of how to invest. Investors can consider private equity, property and other direct investments as a … Read more