Rotman ICPM research

The Rotman International Centre for Pension Management (ICPM) has approved five research projects for funding this year, including a behavioural-finance project by Swedish academics, to investigate plan members’ views of the “extended” fiduciary duty of pension funds. This project, to be conducted by Joakim Sandberg, Anders Biel and Magnus Jansson from the University of Gothenburg … Read more

MSCI: the data toolmaker

With hundreds of indexes, portfolio and risk analytics, and a growing emerging-markets and environmental, social and governance (ESG) focus, MSCI is a business in constant evolution, but chief executive and chairman, Henry Fernandez, says institutional investors are demanding further development, such as private-equity indexes. Fernandez has been chief executive of MSCI since 1996, when the … Read more

EDHEC-Risk: reform retirement

  EDHEC-Risk Institute has released a study highlighting the need to reform retirement systems and pension funds. The study Shifting Towards Hybrid Pension Systems: A European Perspective also looks at the need to adopt professional management structures and to considerably improve the product offering of defined-contribution funds. To read the paper click here

Missouri’s risk-based
asset allocation

A decision by two of Missouri’s public pension plans to adopt a straightforward risk-based approach to asset allocation garnered their best result in two decades last year, while also providing investment staff with the autonomy to react quickly to changing market conditions. The board overseeing the Public School Retirement System of Missouri (PSRS) and the … Read more

Illinois pension reform

At least one state in the US is acting on the need for epic reform of its pension system, but the political difficulty associated with such reform – something all states are wary of – was demonstrated in the violent outburst by Illinois representative, Mike Bost, last week (see video) and the inability of representatives … Read more

Ang angles for more dynamism at CPPIB

The Ann F Kaplan professor of business at Columbia Business School, Andrew Ang will teach a case study on the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board’s (CPPIB) reference portfolio in the fall. While for the most part complimentary of the approach and process, he challenges the Canadian fund to consider a more dynamic reference portfolio. The … Read more