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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 […]
Amanda WhiteDecember 18, 2013
Uncategorised posts

Dry up: how investors assess water risks

The world is running short of water, but what does that mean for investors? Asset owners in the Netherlands and Norway assess and manage the water-related risks in their portfolios, including the measurement of portfolio companies’ water dependence and water security. The drought hitting South Africa’s North West Province sounds another warning shot around the […]
Sarah RundellNovember 8, 2013
FIS Amsterdam 2013

Worst case portfolio keeps HOOPP on track

The enviable surplus of the $47.4 billion Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, HOOPP, is down to a key focus on what David Long, senior vice president and co-chief investment officer at the fund, attributes to a “single strategic objective:” namely to pay benefits at a reasonable cost to the fund’s 247,000 workers in Ontario’s hospital […]
Sarah RundellOctober 22, 2013
Uncategorised posts

Disparity in policy portfolio risk profiles

A policy portfolio is a poor reflection of investor preferences, argued Peter Bernstein. This philosophical question has now been empirically tested by MIT’s Mark Kritzman, who shows the inter-temporal disparity of a policy portfolio’s risk profile. He suggests a simple framework for addressing this deficiency. Kritzman encourages investors to replace rigid policy portfolios with flexible investment policies. […]
Amanda WhiteJuly 17, 2013
Uncategorised posts

Retirement: a cause worth working on

There are two things that drive the newly appointed global chief operating officer of State Street Global Advisors, Greg Ehret, in his bid to improve the client experience: the retirement business is a cause worth working on and the clients are the reason the business exists. Ehret was appointed to the new position at SSgA, […]
Amanda WhiteMay 17, 2013
Research

Public pension governance and asset allocation

This paper from Matt Dobra and Bruce Lubich, of the Methodist University in North Carolina and the University of Maryland University College, respectively, analyses the relationship between governance, asset allocation, and risk among state and local government-operated pension systems in the United States of America. It is argued that governance influences investment decisions and risk profiles of public […]
STAFF WRITERApril 24, 2013
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