Hedging your bets? Back innovation for wealth creation

In 2012 there were 31 hedge fund managers on the Forbes 400 list, representing about 8 per cent of the wealthiest people in the US, up from 6 per cent the year before. Wealthy people on the whole don’t interest me, but innovation does. And the creation of wealth, and the creation of jobs and … Read more

Methodist morality delivers mainstream returns

When John Wesley, the 18th century Anglican cleric, preached that business practices should not harm one’s neighbour, he never imagined that his principles would guide the global investment strategy of an $18.4-billion pension fund. Today, the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of the United Methodist Church, based in Chicago, ranks as one of … Read more

CalPERS’ sustainability initiative drives investment beliefs

Launched this week, CalPERS’ Sustainable Investment Research Initiative (SIRI) will drive the development the $250-billion fund’s first set of investment beliefs. While difficult to believe a fund of its size, reach and history could invest without a set of investment beliefs, it is encouraging to see that sustainability will be a core part of that … Read more

UMR: growth from government bonds?

“We have to move faster than our competitors,” says the chief executive of French retirement fund Union Mutualiste Retraite, Charles Vaquier. It is a phrase that you can hear uttered by business leaders at all sectors and levels, but one that institutional investors rarely emphasise. In chatting about its investment strategy, it soon becomes apparent … Read more

Raising ESG ratings with improved returns

While environmental, social and governance factors may be all the rage in investment strategies, the right tools to measure results of their implementation would make tangible what skeptics might think are the emperor’s new clothes. Cue researchers Zoltán Nagy, Doug Cogan and Dan Sinnreich from MSCI with their December 2012 paper, Optimizing ESG Risk Factors … Read more

Finnish pension reform a lesson for all

The findings from the first review of the Finnish pension system, commissioned by the Finnish Centre for Pensions, were handed down by Nicholas Barr from the London School of Economics and Keith Ambachtsheer from the Rotman International Centre for Pension Management last month. Although Helsinki in January is far from a party Ambachtsheer and Barr … Read more