Opinion
Global assets in motion
Analysis of the Willis Towers Watson Global Pension Assets Study 2016 shows a troubled industry responding as best it can to situations it feels are out of its control.
Roger UrwinFebruary 4, 2016
Uncategorised posts
Do long-term mandates produce better results?
About 11 years ago, the Towers Watson’s Thinking Ahead Group came up with the concept of investors appointing managers for 10-year mandates. The consulting arm then started talking to clients about it in 2004/05 and the early mandates have now matured. So did it work? Do longer-term mandates produce outperformance, better behaviour and more security? […]
Amanda WhiteOctober 7, 2015
Uncategorised posts
Managing culture with risk management techniques
The interaction between governance, culture and performance is increasingly a topic around asset owner board tables. But little has been written about the relationship between culture and the financial crisis, and how to change culture in financial services organisations. Andrew Lo, professor of finance at MIT, has come up with a proposal to change culture […]
Amanda WhiteJuly 17, 2015
Harvard 2014
All aboard the change express as Railpen leaves the station
At the end of a corporate review process that lasted eight months, involved 23 meetings of a steering committee and produced 60 working papers, the UK railways pension fund Railpen was left with 422 action items. “We’ve done 224 of them,” Chris Hitchen, Railpen chief executive, told the Fiduciary Investors Symposium (FIS) at Harvard University. […]
Simon HoyleOctober 29, 2014
Opinion
The investment model for asset owners: is there a best-practice version?
In the last of a series of articles exclusively for conexust1f.flywheelstaging.com, Roger Urwin, head of global content at Towers Watson examines the asset owner investment models that are recognised as best practice, questioning whether there are patterns to the models of success. The best-practice investing model could either involve how you do it or what […]
Opinion
Ubiquitous and adaptive investing – the aspiration of a truly global fund
Large pension funds might be invested on a truly global basis but their operating models are rarely global structures. Towers Watson argues that asset owners can benefit from a business model that can deliver organisational performance, manages talent and aligns with core missions from multiple operating locations. Over the last decade, large pension funds and […]