Robert Merton: the individual plan man

A retirement solution that focuses on outcomes and is customised for each participant cannot be met by existing defined-contribution designs, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist, Robert Merton, who advocates a “next-generation DC solution”. Merton, who is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management’s distinguished professor of finance and resident scientist at Dimensional Fund … Read more

Investors add to credit cycle

Reaching-for-yield — the propensity to buy riskier assets in order to achieve higher yields — is believed to be an important factor contributing to the credit cycle. This Harvard Business School finance working paper analyses this phenomenon in the corporate bond market. The paper’s authors Bo Becker and Victoria Ivashina show evidence for reaching for … Read more

CalSTRS puts small caps under microscope

Encouraging the widespread corporate adoption of a majority-voting standard, promoting diversity on boards and collaborating to improve the way funds report environmental performance are just some of the focuses of the CalSTRS corporate governance team. Anne Sheehan, CalSTRS’ director of corporate governance, talked exclusively with top1000funds.com about what the key issues are for the self-described … Read more

Mercer to review pay at Florida’s SBA

Florida’s State Board of Administration (SBA) has appointed Mercer to conduct a broad-ranging review of staff compensation that was initiated and will be overseen by the organisation’s independent investment advisory council. As part of this review, the investment advisory council (IAC) passed a motion at its recent quarterly meeting to provide annual recommendations to trustees … Read more

Funds chase
the dragon

Institutional investors are turning their attention to Asia, with CalPERS the latest large pension fund to announce a new foray into the region. America’s biggest public pension fund this week announced it would invest $530 million in two new real-estate funds targeting investments in China. Despite concerns about a residential property bubble in China, CalPERS’ … Read more