It will be just as important for investors to be patient in 2010 as it was in 2009 according to Russell Investments, as the year will be dominated by a series of macro themes causing spikes in asset return volatility.
Financial services firms are responding to the perceived negative impact of their remuneration practices by changing the mix of pay, moving emphasis away from short-term incentive schemes in favour of salary, according to a global survey of more than 60 organisations by Mercer.
Now that automatic enrolment has become the centrepiece of UK pension reform, decent retirement incomes should no longer be exclusive to company veterans and the well-off.
The $68 billion New Jersey Division of Investment (NJDI) has made claims to be the best performing public pension fund in the US in fiscal year 2009. This is made all the more impressive considering the internal investment team, which manages a large majority of assets, numbers only 16. Amanda White looks behind the scenes at the asset allocation and investment moves that benefited the fund.
CalPERS has made some significant changes to its securities lending policy document in order to reduce risk and improve counterparty diversification in the portfolio, including a reduction in the maximum exposure to any counterparty, from 30 to 25 per cent of the total program. (more…)
While regulatory reforms can introduce improvements to complex investment products such as standardisation, Dr Arjuna Sittampalam, Research Associate with EDHEC-Risk Institute and Editor, Investment Management Review, argues an increased suppression of complexity could be unfortunate, particularly as pension funds begin to take to derivatives in a big way.