As opposing macroeconomic and geopolitical forces collide, chief investment officers at leading pension funds say that trying to predict the future is a “loser’s game”. The question today is no longer what comes next, but how to build a portfolio that holds together in any investment regime.
The breakdown of a decades-old bargain between the US government and its research universities threatens the engine that has driven American productivity and economic growth since the end of World War II, the Top1000funds.com Fiduciary Investors Symposium at Harvard heard.
CalPERS chief investment officer Stephen Gilmore said the $650 billion fund’s upcoming shift to a total portfolio approach will sharpen investment accountability and help it focus capital allocation decisions on fund-level objectives.
In a fireside chat at FIS Harvard, Blue Owl co-founder Doug Ostrover said the fast-growing alternatives shop won’t expand “just for the sake of hubris” as it pursues market leadership through a tightly defined set of offerings. He also unpacked the recent redemption pressure the firm was under and how it plans to move past it.
Reports of America’s decline as a geopolitical and economic power are exaggerated, and the noise investors should learn to ignore is really only the presidency itself, celebrated historian Stephen Kotkin told the Fiduciary Investors Symposium at Harvard.
Trustee of Massachusetts PRIM and state Treasurer Deborah Goldberg said investing with a stewardship and sustainability-conscious approach remains “common sense” for the $116 billion fund, though she said it has been harder for the investor to access some ESG-related information from managers and companies.
Top1000funds.com is the market leading news and analysis site for the world’s largest institutional investors. It focuses on leading the global investment industry to continuous improvement through case studies of best practice in governance and decision making, portfolio construction and efficient portfolio management, fees and costs, and sustainable investing.
The publication pushes the industry to question whether status quo processes and behaviours to tackle risks and opportunities will be sufficient in the future, and actively campaigns for diversity, sustainability, transparency, innovation and better alignment of fees in the investment industry.
Top1000funds.com is read by investment professionals in more than 40 countries.
