Thanks for subscribing
You’ll now receive our twice-weekly newsletter featuring news stories, case studies and research that relate directly to the work of investment professionals at pension funds, endowments and sovereign wealth funds. Please feel free to contact us if you have any any queries or ideas you have about the publication.
Opinion
More funds consider TPA despite challenges
In January 2020 Roger Urwin laid down a call to action for asset owners and corporations to use the decade to drive greater wellbeing and wealth in the lives of their stakeholders. Now halfway through the decade, he reviews the state of play in this complicated picture.
Sustainability
LGPS Strathclyde invests more in impact; boasts highest funded level ever
LGPS Strathclyde, the £31 billion ($41 billion) pension fund for public sector employees in the Glasgow area is planning to increase its impact allocation to 7.5 per cent, after also celebrating its highest funded level ever.
Featured Story
Stable value at TRS proves ballast in extraordinary times
Texas Teacher Retirement System, the $211.6 billion Austin-based pension fund, has an asset allocation that is built to withstand the “extraordinary times” and adverse climate investors face today. The fund's 21 per cent allocation to stable value to stand the test of recession has proven most robust.
Opinion
Exploring the interconnectedness of biodiversity and climate change
Biodiversity loss is one of the top global risks in terms of its impact and likelihood, yet it is completely overshadowed by climate change and is not well understood. Anastassia Johnson, researcher at the Thinking Ahead Institute, explores the intersection of both issues and what investors should do about them.
InFocus
Combating geopolitical and economic headwinds by going global in fixed income
Growing economic and geopolitical uncertainty, amidst volatile trade policies and turbulent foreign relations, requires asset owners to rethink their core fixed income allocation and take a more global view to beef up the resilience and robustness of their broader portfolio.
Podcasts
The world in flux and Trump’s role in a new equilibrium
The second Trump administration has so far brought a lot of things: market shocks, volatile trade policies, and turbulent foreign relationships. But beyond the chaos, renowned geopolitics expert Stephen Kotkin says Trump has an unwitting role to help the world rebalance and reach a “new equilibrium” in the global order.
Risk
Investors brace for volatility as tariffs spark global reckoning
The investors which will do well in times of market volatility will have the ability to do extensive, forward-looking scenario analysis, move assets tactically and dynamically and have liquidity. Top1000funds.com looks at investor reactions to tariff-induced market volatility.
FIS Singapore 2025
APG doubles down on Asia as next growth hub
APG Asset Management is bullish on Asia’s growth prospects, with local CEO Thijs Aaten saying he would like to eventually see half of the Dutch pension fund’s real assets invested in the region.
Featured Story
Alabama Retirement Systems: Trump’s policies don’t work for pension funds
Alabama Retirement Systems' veteran CEO David Bronner explains how rapid policy changes with little thought to the long-term consequences coming out of the new Trump administration leave the pension fund "flying blind". The fund is prioritising cash.
Technology
Can artificial intelligence (AI) help stewardship resourcing?
Jessica Gao, associate director of research at the Thinking Ahead Institute, outlines how asset owners can use AI to solve a growing resource gap in stewardship activities.
Opinion
Piecing together the impact investing puzzle
Ben Thornley, co-founder at Tideline, looks at how value creation practices bring a manager’s impact credentials into sharper focus, the strong positive correlation between impact and financial performance, and the role of allocators in incentivizing and enabling managers to deliver impact value.
Investor Profile
Divestment and impact: Detailhandel pioneers participant engagement
Dutch fund Detailhandel takes participant engagement to a new level as it begins to integrate feedback and preferences from a three day beneficiary forum into investment strategy.
Decisions to Enable Net Zero Investing
The complexity, limitation, evolution and liberation of climate benchmarks
Benchmarks are highlighted in the recent CFA Institute paper as among the historical norms that make investing in climate challenging. MSCI Institute’s Linda-Eling Lee talks about the complexities and evolution of climate benchmarks including the use of balanced scorecard-toolkits that are improving the technology.
FIS Singapore 2025
China is getting its mojo back
After years of underperformance the Chinese stock market had strong gains at the beginning of 2025, giving investors confidence that the country might be getting some of its pre-COVID mojo back.
FIS Singapore 2025
Geopolitical uncertainty forces investors to adopt more granular approach
The radical shift in world geopolitics has prompted investors like the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Khazanah Nasional Berhad and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority to rethink their strategic asset allocations in favour of a more granular approach.
FIS Singapore 2025
How AI will propel quant 2.0
Pictet Asset Management head of quantitative investment David Wright said at FIS Singapore that AI will not only provide drastic efficiency gain for traditional stock pickers but also will be a defining part of “quant 2.0”.
FIS Singapore 2025
Investors ponder secondaries’ role in portfolios amid PE stress
The past two years have been a challenging time for private equity investors thanks to low deal activities, falling distributions and tough exit environment. At FIS Singapore, a panel of investors examine how secondaries can help alleviate the asset class stress in portfolios.
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 Singapore 2025
Asset owners prepare portfolios for a brave new world
As waves of geopolitical risk and economic protectionism roil global markets, asset owners are beginning to realise that tomorrow will look very different from today. But the big question is what they can do about it.
FIS Singapore 2025
GIC: ‘Profound uncertainties’ challenge investor assumptions
Investors are operating in a period of “profound uncertainty” intrinsically different from anything they have lived through in the past few decades and for some, their entire investing lifetimes, according to GIC's top economist and investment strategist Prakash Kannan.
Asset Allocation
South Korea’s NPS pivots to sustainability, dials up risks in the portfolio
After smashing the return record again in 2024, South Korea’s state pension fund National Pension Service is gearing up to reduce coal investments to promote sustainability in the portfolio, and target riskier assets to ensure sustainability in funding.
Investor Profile
Switzerland’s MPK taps gains in gold, equity and real estate
Stephan Bereuter, CIO of Switzerland's Migros-Pensionskasse (MPK) explains why he favours gold, and argues that after three years in the doldrums core real estate opportunities are starting to open up.
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.
Investor Profile
Brunel uses AI in stewardship and doubles down on manager misalignment
Brunel Pension Partnership has introduced AI in its stewardship processes, and is working with other asset owners to put more pressure on asset managers to align with its climate demands.
Investor Profile
Frampton shows the way as APFC turns to China, private equity
Opportunity in China, risk aversion in fixed income as spreads remain tight, and turning up the volume in private equity: Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation's Marcus Frampton talks latest strategy at the $82 billion fund.