Ensuring a sustainable income in retirement is an enduringly knotty problem and one that continues to preoccupy countries' pension systems and their asset manager partners. NEST, Sweden's Fund Selection Agency and US asset manager Apollo reflect on the future of retirement.
John Toomey, chief executive officer of Boston-based HarbourVest Partners shares his observations of investment opportunities in Europe where the availability of capital, skill and risk appetite still pales compared to the US.
The risk of litigation and liquidity concerns mean America's 401(k) funds won't venture into private markets for five to 10 years, said T. Rowe Price's Michael Davis, speaking at FIS Oxford. But he said legislation has played a powerful role in shaping the US retirement industry.
NEST is conducting a strategic review of its private markets allocation to ensure the program – launched in 2020 – is still capturing a liquidity premium for its young member base. Its private market head explains the key seams including no performance fees and evergreen structures to monitor deployment.
In the last seven years, the private markets allocation at the UK’s Brunel Pension Partnership has grown to £8 billion ($10.7 billion). The fund's head of private markets Richard Fanshawe charts that growth but warns of a dearth of opportunity in the UK and uncertainties in the transition ahead.
University Pension Plan Ontario is aggressively building out its 20 per cent allocation to private assets, taking advantage of many LPs finding themselves overweight illiquid investments to build new GP relationships.
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.
FIS Oxford 2025