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Demystifying private equity

US public pension funds, on average, have around 9.4 per cent allocated to private equity but for many public funds monitoring the firms that manage these investments – including the transparency of underlying investments, fees, performance and benchmarking – as well justifying these investments to boards and stakeholders, takes up more than 10 per cent […]
Amanda WhiteAugust 12, 2015
Research

Fees eat diversification’s lunch

The balance between the allocating to the right number of asset classes and over-diversification is a concern for pension fund investment executives and committees. A new paper by professors at the US Air Force Academy examines the relationship between fees of diversifying asset classes and their diversifying benefits. The paper finds that, in many cases, […]
Amanda WhiteJanuary 30, 2015
FIS Harvard 2014

Concerns over private equity leave pension funds wary

Institutional investors are clearly attracted to private equity, but remain wary of the sector for its perceived lack of transparency and ability to be measured, high fees and a sense that they cannot invest into the sector as truly equal partners. “It’s clear that now is a time with a lot of flux in private […]
Simon HoyleOctober 29, 2014
Investor Profile

Capital provider: Australia’s Sunsuper

The $26 billion Australian super fund, Sunsuper, is investing in an increasing amount of exclusive unlisted asset deals. Chief investment officer David Hartley says the difficulties of banks in Europe in particular have led the fund down the path of increasing the amount of debt investments in its unlisted exposure. Much of this has been […]
David RowleyJune 4, 2014
Opinion

Challenges facing the world’s biggest funds

In the coming weeks, Towers Watson will be writing a series of articles, exclusive to conexust1f.flywheelstaging.com, that look at key challenges facing large asset owners. These will focus on specific practicalities that many global funds are encountering such as the role of internal teams. To put these challenges in context, this first article by global […]
 May 23, 2014
Asset Allocation

CalPERS grapples with new allocation targets

Implementing the asset allocation changes of a very large portfolio, particularly in private markets, is a conundrum CalPERS is dealing with as it moves its asset allocation and decides how to fill new private market allocations.   In February this year the $283 billion CalPERS investment committee approved a new strategic asset allocation which will […]
Amanda WhiteMay 14, 2014
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