Defined benefit thrives at Migros

Success stories at pension funds are a real rarity in crisis-ravaged Europe, with deficits hampering countless major international firms. The CHF16.9-billion ($18.1-billion) pension fund of Swiss supermarket cooperative, Migros, is firmly in the blessed minority of funds enjoying rude health. Migros Pensionskasse was even able to boost its surplus to $1.3 billion in 2011 while … Read more

Klinck: we don’t need any more product

The investment and pension industry has created too much complexity and added too many costs, and must move towards more simplicity, executive vice president and member of the management committee of State Street, Jack Klinck, told delegates in an opening address at the Fiduciary Investors Symposium in Santa Monica. Klinck observed four mega trends in … Read more

LPFA drives single mammoth UK fund

The London Pensions Fund Authority (LPFA), among the largest of the United Kingdom’s Local Government Pension Schemes, is spearheading a bold idea. The £4.2-billion ($6.74-billion) scheme is pushing the notion of combining with London’s other 34 local authority funds into a single, giant scheme. The $32.13-billion superfund would pack more punch as a single investor, … Read more

Factoring sustainability into portfolio decisions

Asset owners remain understandably challenged to incorporate sustainability factors into global equity allocations. Global macro trends make clear that sustainability considerations will be increasingly essential for consideration, but often less clear is how to factor this into portfolio decisions in a sophisticated manner. Dwindling natural resources and the world’s related ‘carrying capacity’ is translated by … Read more

Is the emerging markets
concept dated?

Are broad emerging-markets allocations still appropriate? By analysing the trend of mandate configuration, this paper by MSCI looks at whether the emerging-markets concept is dated and whether broad-based emerging-markets investing remains an appealing way to capture economic growth premium. Read the report here.