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Merton’s message: give up on alpha

Nobel Prize winner, Robert Merton, has thrown down the gauntlet. He claims that by focusing on a retirement income goal he can beat any competitor that is managing a 70:30 portfolio that has wealth accumulation as the goal. Do you dare take him on? The defined contribution pension management industry has it wrong, according to

Inside the Future Fund’s investment decisions

The $91 billion Australian Future Fund’s approach to investing is to get even more sophisticated as it borrows ideas and techniques from other investors, including the risk management and portfolio construction techniques of multi-strategy hedge funds. David Rowley speaks to CIO David Neal. Many will quickly tell you there is greater return to be made

A new era for London Pension Fund Authority

An investment banking background brings a different perspective to the role of pension fund chief investment officer, and for the London Pension Fund Authority that means more focus on risk management, quantitative tools and processes, and implementation cost savings. Amanda White speaks with CIO Alex Gracian.   Alex Gracian has only been the chief investment

Equities bias for Nottinghamshire local fund

An equities-biased strategy for the Nottinghamshire Local Government Pension Scheme is against the trend for funds in the UK, but the local government scheme has no plans to de-risk as it tries to make up its funding level.   The strategy of the £3.5 billion ($5.7 billion) Nottinghamshire Local Government Pension Scheme, one of the

Emerging equity markets in a globalising world

This research by academics at Duke and Columbia Universities looks at whether it still makes sense to separate equities allocations into developed and emerging market buckets.   Given the dramatic globalization over the past twenty years, does it make sense to segregate global equities into “developed” and “emerging” market buckets? This paper argues that the