Brussels ‘cooking up real estate shock’

The European Union is threatening to drive pension funds out of real estate investments, experts warn. That could be one of the undesirable results of plans to put pension funds under new risk regulations akin to the Solvency II requirements for the continent’s insurers. What most concerns John Forbes, a PriceWaterhouseCoopers real estate expert, is … Read more

Size and scalability up, fees down

The world’s largest asset managers should be using the advantages of their size and scalability to adjust their fee structures, according to Craig Baker, the global head of manager research at Towers Watson, which just released this year’s Pensions & Investments/Towers Watson World 500. “The advantage of large managers is [that] they could structure their … Read more

USS powers into diversity

In the past few years the £34-billion ($54.7 billion) Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) has substantially diversified its asset allocation, including a large alternatives allocation, and extended its investment team from 65 to 105. In the latest chapter of the fund’s investment department reincarnation, from October this year a separate but fully owned USS company, USS … Read more

300 Club roots for stewardship over salesmanship

The 300 Club is a rare group that combines long-term thinking and asset management provision. Taking on an industry that is evolving from client-driven to product-driven, the 300 Club is proposing a fundamental mindset shift from short-term salesmanship to long-term stewardship. In this paper, chief investment officer of Kempen Capital Management in the Netherlands, Lars … Read more

Short-term consequences of long-term risk

Estimates of the equity risk premium suggest higher levels of uncertainty in equities markets, despite the fact daily VIX risk levels have declined. Risk managers need to confront the tension between short-term risk levels and long-term macroeconomic uncertainties. This MSCI research prescribes the need for risk managers and investors to make fuller use of a … Read more