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Fixed Income
CalPERS touts fixed income wins, gears up for TPA
At the annual review of its fixed income portfolio, CalPERS staff explain how active management, value-add strategies and the hunt for alpha are paying off, with ESG integration giving it a valuable edge and informing it to invest in companies under pressure like Boeing at the right time.
FIS Stanford 2025
Condoleezza Rice: Globalisation’s borderless era is coming undone
Condoleezza Rice, the 66th US Secretary of State and current director of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, said the new world order will have several characteristics of which there are already signs: more protectionist trade policies, a redistribution of security burdens, and louder voices for those marginalised in globalisation.
Investor Profile
‘So far so good’: Sweden’s FTN bags 150bps equity fund return improvement
In an endorsement of its hard work over the last year, Sweden’s Fund Selection Agency, which procures and monitors the funds on offer on the country’s premium pension platform, is already starting to see improved returns and lower fees from the wave of new equity funds it mandated.
News
How leading asset owners maintain TPA discipline
Rolling out a total portfolio approach is rarely a linear process, as even its most experienced practitioners warned that without careful resistance to old language, culture and structure, asset owners can easily slide back into the “comfort” of strategic asset allocation. A new report unpacks how leading funds stay disciplined.
Asset Allocation
South Carolina lifts private equity and credit as cashflow turns positive
The South Carolina Retirement System Investment Commission's improved liquidity position has allowed the plan to tilt its portfolio towards unlisted asset classes, including private equity and private credit. The fund grew fast thanks to funding reform, improved salaries, and positive investment returns and is now looking to boost long-term performance.
FIS Stanford 2025
Real asset opportunities ‘are coming from everywhere’: Macquarie
While the US remains the most entrepreneurial economy, China might now be challenging its technology leadership, while demographics, deglobalisation, decarbonisation, and digitalisation are creating “massive opportunities” in almost every market, according to Macquarie Asset Management.
FIS Stanford 2025
Why China could trigger a Taiwan crisis without firing a shot
Former US deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger has warned that China could spark “a very serious crisis” in Taiwan without even resorting to a full-scale war – an escalation he said could occur within the current Trump administration.
Opinion
Wisdom: The jewel in the dirt-pile of intelligence
In his regular column for Top1000funds.com, Tim Hodgson, co-founder of the Thinking Ahead Institute at WTW, reflects on the dangers of unconstrained action, the limits of efficiency, and why long-term sustainability may depend on knowing when not to act.
Investor Profile
NZ Super co-CIOs chart TPA vision; hunt for new alpha sources
As NZ Super nuts out growing pains in processes and technology, it has made some recent decisions to change its governance route including appointing two co-CIOs, Brad Dunstan and Will Goodwin, last year. In an interview, they discuss the co-delegation model, the evolution of TPA, and new alpha sources.
Opinion
Are we waiting for a superhero to save our world?
Can climate inaction be reversed, or will we keep waiting for someone else to act? Jessica Gao, researcher at the Thinking Ahead Institute at WTW, explores how individuals, investors, and companies can step up to lead the transition - before it's too late.
Opinion
The efficiency trap
Will the relentless pursuit of efficiency undermine our ability to build a resilient and sustainable future? Andrea Caloisi, a researcher at the Thinking Ahead Institute at WTW, explores how complex systems, driven by short-term optimisation, may be fuelling long-term fragility.
Investor Profile
PFZW’s IC chair explains why cutting equity names hones impact
Professor Dirk Schoenmaker, investment committee chair of the €250 billion ($291 billion) Dutch healthcare pension fund Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn (PFZW), whose expertise has helped inform its "3D" investment strategy, explains why less is more in an equity allocation with fewer stocks.
Opinion
Data ‘slop’ and disinformation emerge as systemic risks for investors
Will AI-fuelled misinformation overwhelm investors’ ability to make sound decisions? The Thinking Ahead Institute’s Tim Hodgson examines the systemic risks of 'data slop' and why data provenance should be a strategic priority.
FIS Stanford 2025
Public-private partnerships key to fixing US infrastructure
The size of the current infrastructure investment gap and the speed at which it is widening mean there is both a desire and a need for more public-private partnerships to unlock funding. Investors say that collaboration with local governments and raising public awareness of private investment benefits are crucial.
Equities
Future Fund flags expansion of active equity program
Emerging markets, Europe and Japan are all in focus for Australia’s sovereign wealth fund as it looks to ramp up active equities and diversify its exposures, as the fund grows wary of US markets amidst heightened political uncertainty.
Asset Classes
OMERS flags end to supercharged private equity returns
OMERS has warned that investors need to temper their expectations regarding the performance of more recent private equity vintages, as the favourable environment of high valuation multiples and low interest rates that spurred over a decade of superior returns begins to fade, said APAC head Ashish Goyal in Singapore.
News
ACERA eyes global, more active approach for $6.6b equity portfolio
The $13.2 billion Alameda County Employees’ Retirement Association fund is planning a major overhaul of its equity portfolio, shifting from a passive US-focused approach to a more global, actively-managed strategy in an effort to boost returns. The shift will result in manager terminations and searches.
FIS Stanford 2018
FIS Stanford Photo Gallery
View photos from the 2018 Fiduciary Investors Symposium, held at Stanford University, United States.
FIS Stanford 2018
China’s enticing, challenging market
Inefficient markets and an explosion of technological innovation fuelled by Millennial consumers make China a tantalising prospect but accessing strong returns there isn’t as simple as it looks.
FIS Stanford 2018
Protecting human capital helps everyone
Investors have plenty to gain from helping to protect human rights in supply chains and managing the human costs during technological disruption and the transition to a low-carbon economy.
FIS Stanford 2018
How to follow megatrends to success
The big themes that will fuel growth in coming decades are interconnected and subject to change. An expert panel gave advice on riding societal change to outperformance.
FIS Stanford 2018
How the active complements the passive
Investors discuss the various ways that two styles often presented as if they are enemies in fact work hand in hand across portfolios to produce returns.
FIS Stanford 2025
Investors unpack regime-based portfolio thinking
Funds are operating in an extraordinary environment, with Scott Chan, chief investment officer of CalSTRS, saying he has never witnessed so many “large shifts stacked on top of the other” in his investment career. Amid the change, investors are increasingly shifting to a scenario and regime-based asset allocation.
Organisational Design
Accountability, performance at the heart of Temasek’s three-way split
Singapore’s Temasek has unveiled its biggest organisational overhaul in more than a decade, splitting its investment portfolio into three entities to “sharpen” investment focus, boost accountability and align performance metrics. It came as the fund targets a 60/40 split between the “resilient” and “dynamic” assets to weatherproof its portfolio.
Investor Profile
A rock and a hard place: GEPF on the challenges of transitioning coal
Reducing exposure to the risk in coal is particularly challenging for South Africa’s $122 billion Government Employees Pension Fund. ESG manager Belaina Negash explains the complexities due to the industry's tie with the economy and the fund's transition framework.
Private Credit
Mid-market, asset-backed private credit shines for growing Asian allocators
Asia's growing investors, including university endowments and family offices, are hunting for returns in lower-middle market and asset-backed private credit. In an interview with Top1000funds.com, head of Asian clients at the $92 billion OCIO Cambridge Associates, Prabhat Ojha, talks manager selection and Asian allocators' rising appetite for alternatives.
News
KIC eyes pivot to total portfolio approach in latest review
The $206.5 billion Korea Investment Corporation has become the latest asset owner weighing a shift into the total portfolio approach in an attempt to boost investment returns. After putting out an RFP for a consulting partner in May, it will conduct a review into early next year about TPA's feasibility.
InFocus
TAA critical to adding value over the next six to 18 months
After several painful years, geographical diversification is finally working and will continue to work, at least in the short term, with increasing signs of a valuation advantage for non-US stocks and bonds, according to T. Rowe Price’s Sébastien Page. He says it's time to make use of tactical asset allocation.
Investor Profile
USS swings into surplus but flags re-think after Thames losses
USS says losses in Thames Water have led to deep reflection on how it will invest in regulated assets in the future, flagging the need for consistent regulation to support pension fund investment. As the fund celebrates its 50th year it records a surplus for the first time since 2008.
Strategy
UK’s transition-focused SWF gets green light
UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves didn’t waste any time approving the UK’s new SWF aimed at funding the energy transition. As it begins to lay down structure and governance frameworks critics point to the challenges of bringing projects to a level where they are investable.