Received financial wisdom holds that the price of virtue for ethical investors is lower returns. It all depends on the time frame, argues Tom Joy, director of investment for Britain’s Church Commissioners, who manage the Church of England’s £5.2-billion ($8.38 billion) pension fund. The Church Commissioners, as fund managers who are ultimately accountable to God, … Read more
Delegation is a fundamental obstacle to the alignment of asset-owner and asset-manager goals. However, Sebastien Pouget, professor of finance at the University of Toulouse, believes a combination of customised performance benchmarks and a dual short and long-term fee incentive can help overcome the problems of the principal/agent relationship. Pouget, who spoke at the recent United … Read more
Denmark has blitzed the pension-system competition, being awarded the first Mercer Global Pension Index A grading. In the process, it has relegated the Dutch and Australian systems to second and third places, respectively, after four years. Mercer senior partner and report author, David Knox, says the reasons for awarding Denmark the top grade were clear. … Read more
For many years Japan has been an insurance-market behemoth and Japan Post Insurance Company is one of the giants with $1.13 trillion. But the industry has not been immune to change. Between 1997 and 2001 seven life insurance companies became insolvent, and there is a question mark over whether it was a low interest-rate environment … Read more
At the International Centre for Pension Management’s biannual meeting in London, Jack Gray and Generation’s David Blood had a tête à tête on sustainability. An academic at the Paul Woolley Centre for Capital Market Dysfunctionality at the University of Technology Sydney, Gray has written a paper, Misadventures of an Irresponsible Investor, that at its core … Read more
In the United Kingdom there are around 1.5 million employers, and it is estimated more than half of them do not offer a pension to their employees. The pension system in the UK is fragmented. There are more than 10,000 mostly defined-benefit plans and, unless you are a government employee or in the high-income bracket, … Read more
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