A fund’s overall investment strategy should lead how senior staff are compensated, a recent survey into pension fund pay levels found. KPA Advisory Services recently asked 37 funds with combined assets of more than $2.2 trillion about how they structured their pay for senior staff and published the results in its latest monthly, The Ambachtsheer Letter. (more…)

A successful tactical bet by the investment team of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas fuelled a heated debate at the April investment committee meeting which concluded with chief investment officer, Britt Harris, dismissing the need for more flexibility in the fund’s policy statement. (more…)

Is the choice between a cap-weighted or fundamental index really going to result in more goals (or alpha), or is it just shifting the posts? It doesn’t really matter what you choose as your benchmark – it is exactly that, a benchmark. A point of reference. But if what you are deciding is the choice of an investment methodology or style, that is an entirely different question. (more…)

Can large sophisticated investors beat the market? And possibly more insightfully, how do they beat the market? These questions are explored in a recent ICPM research paper – asset allocation and performance of pension funds. Amanda White spoke to one of the authors, Aleksandar Andonov from Maastricht University. (more…)

Investors want significant improvements in the way hedge funds interact with investors, and have called for greater reporting and transparency in a recently published guide to the industry. (more…)

The recent alliance between Mercer Investment Consulting and Callan Associates to acquire the bulk of Evaluation Associates – the investment consulting arm of Milliman Inc – could be the start of a cooperation that targets other potentially attractive acquisitions in the US industry. (more…)