Defining Moments: the future for pension funds and the pension fund industry

The goal of the research was to drill deeply into the evolving forces in the industry and present a plausible picture of its future landscape, through both near-term and longer-term trends. Our time horizon looked out towards 2020. We, however, acknowledge the considerable difficulties with longer-range forecasting given the increasing pace of change. There is … Read more

Infrastructure on the Defensive

The unwinding of several high profile infrastructure funds in the recent past has prompted questions as to the performance of infrastructure assets/investments and the impact of the current credit markets, on the outlook for the sector. Mercer remains positive on the long-term fundamentals for the infrastructure sector, especially in the emerging markets. Moreover, we believe … Read more

The Role of Commodities and Timberland in a Portfolio

Over the last several years, institutional investors have more than doubled their allocation, to over $110 billion, to financial products whose returns are linked to those of commodity indices. Commodities may be attractive due to the low correlation between the returns of commodities and those of other asset classes, the high correlation of commodities returns … Read more

Hedge Fund Alert: Looking Around the Corner for More Risk and Opportunity

How do current market activities, regulatory changes and dislocations potentially impact the ability of hedge funds to prosper going forward? The huge changes occurring in the markets are having a significant impact on hedge funds, including short sale restrictions, disclosure requirements and the effective elimination of the investment banking model and its attendant impact on … Read more

Adveq Private Equity Market Assessment and Outlook

Over the last 12 months global financial markets have undergone major corrections following, fundamentally, a break-down in the confidence and trust in the financial system as practiced by the Western world. Along with this break-down we experienced a steep fall in US housing prices, the nationalization of financial institutions, the forced merger and/or failure of … Read more