Investment consultants: the heart of systemic failure?

In this engaging Edmond J Safra Research Lab Working Paper, Investment consultants and institutional corruption, lawyer Jay Youngdahl looks candidly at investment consultants in the United States. Describing them as gatekeepers between institutional investors and the peddlers of financial products, the author identifies ethically dodgy and widespread practices, and suggests they are at the heart … Read more

Irresistible opportunity in Nigeria

The offices of Nigeria’s biggest pension fund manager sit at the end of a quiet side street on Victoria Island, Lagos’s bustling financial capital. Inside Stanbic IBTC’s aptly named Wealth House, indicative of Nigeria’s growing savings culture, a throng of customers jostle to query staff on pension matters. Four flights up, 48-year-old chief executive Demola … Read more

CFA to lead industry out of crisis

Protecting the pension system is one of six key themes at the centre of the CFA Institute’s Future of Finance initiative as it aims to empower the investment industry to take leadership in restoring trust. Speaking at the sixty-sixth annual CFA Institute conference in Singapore this week, president and chief executive of the CFA Institute, … Read more

Public Engagement Report

Q1 2013 Public Engagement Report from Hermes Equity Ownership Services (EOS). This report contains a summary of the responsible ownership activities undertaken by EOS on behalf of its clients. It covers significant themes that have informed some of our intensive engagements with companies in Q1 2013. The report also provides information on our voting decisions … Read more

Diversification key for pioneer of fiduciary management

For someone whose ideas have revolutionised the Dutch pension industry and carried significant international clout, Anton van Nunen strikes a humble tone. Widely credited with pioneering fiduciary management from its infancy, Van Nunen confesses with a chuckle that it is “quite a surprise” that the concept has grown to win over a significant proportion of … Read more

Tail risk parity, V 1.0

Just when you thought you were safe, the next reiteration of risk parity has arrived. AllianceBernstein’s tail risk parity takes the concept of risk parity, reallocating assets uniformly according to risk, but it uses tail risk, not volatility, as the core measure. The concept of risk parity is a portfolio diversified according to risk, rather … Read more