Jim Keohane’s first annual results as chief executive of HOOPP have been satisfying. The fund returned 12.19 per cent in 2011, a result well above its peers. It is 103-per-cent funded, and has reached assets of more than $40 billion for the first time. However, he says the unique investment approach and structure that has … Read more
A defining characteristic of leading pension funds globally is the cost savings garnered from in-house investment management. An organisational design study by CEM Benchmarking has revealed that “leading” funds have an average of 49 per cent of assets managed in-house, and yet the internal staff and non-manager third-party costs make up only 15 per cent … Read more
US public pension funds, under fire for the sustainability of their defined-benefit plans, are increasingly opening a new social-media front line in the battle to influence public opinion. The Maryland State Retirement and Pension System is the latest to step up its social media presence, posting its first You Tube video, which outlines the positive … Read more
MSCI looks at why investors may have a limited small cap representation in their equity portfolios and how this may potentially impact on both risk and returns. The researchers find that investors may be making an unintentional decision to minimise their exposure to small caps that could have cost 60 basis points of annual performance … Read more
The flight to quality was not limited to certain developed-country debt during the volatility in the second half of 2011. Indeed, Pimco’s global co-head of emerging-markets portfolio management Ramin Toloui says that some emerging-market government bonds are potential safe havens during times of market stress. He says that the bond giant’s Global Advantage Government Bond … Read more
The recent sharp growth in US corporate defined-benefit-plan liabilities, coupled with concerns that interest rates will start to rise from current historical lows, is slowing the push to de-risk plans, Wilshire Consulting’s head of investment research, Steven Foresti says. The latest Wilshire Consulting research into defined-benefit (DB) plans at S&P 500 companies reveals that aggregate … Read more
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