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Investor Profile
Why internal management at Canada’s BCI includes ESG
For pension funds with large in-house teams that are also navigating the risk and opportunity of sustainable investment, a global head of ESG can play a vital role. Jennifer Coulson, the investor's first global head of ESG, explains why.
Featured Story
Kosovo’s new wealth fund offers development model for eastern Europe
Kosovo, a small country in south-eastern Europe that emerged as an independent state after the Balkan conflict, plans to create a sovereign development fund, the first of its kind in the region.
Opinion
Fearless girl: Is finance making progress?
Visible positioning on the inclusion of women in financial services is now the norm. But the number of women who are CFA Institute members globally – often seen as a proxy for the industry – is just 19 per cent. So, what else can be done to further improve diversity?
Investor Profile
Montreal’s TCC: When a different world view pays off
Montreal-based Trans Canada Capital fuses its pension fund roots with the ethos of a relative value hedge fund for a unique investment approach that hunts uncorrelated alpha across the entire portfolio. Sarah Rundell speaks to two senior portfolio managers about their unique approach.
Asset Allocation
The problem with UK government pressure on pension funds to diversify
UK politicians are urging the country's pension funds to invest less in Gilts and more in riskier and complex assets including young UK companies, and infrastructure. Railpen's John Greaves, head of investment strategy and research explains the various problems with the plan.
Featured Story
SWIB talks active equity as a Best Ideas portfolio takes off
Susan Schmidt, head of public equities at SWIB, talks about the fund's new Best Ideas portfolio. Despite technology's reach and market efficiencies, there is still ample room for a fundamental approach where human skill and a unique investment culture find mispriced opportunities.
Featured Story
As Japan’s GPIF builds out PE, new research flags measurement method
For investors struggling to develop better ways to measure private equity fund performance, researchers at the giant Japanese fund, GPIF, suggest an alternative measurement model that compares private and public assets more accurately.
Featured Story
APFC mulls self evaluation and more board members in governance revamp
In a recent board meeting, trustees at APFC heard from governance experts on the importance of self evaluation; why rules around trustee contact with investment staff are important and how more board members could support oversight at the sovereign wealth fund.
Investor Profile
Total portfolio management pays off at LPPI
The Local Pension Partnership pooled fund has saved £113 million in costs since inception. But the real benefit, according to chief executive Chris Rule, is the governance structure which allows the outsourced provider to manage the total portfolio. He spoke to Amanda White about the power of total portfolio management.
Fees
Costs drive ABP’s switch to passive in public markets
Managing costs is the central driver behind €470 Dutch civil service scheme ABP’s recent decision to switch much of its public market allocation to passive, index-led strategies, according to a spokesperson at the fund. The low-cost strategy at Europe’s largest pension fund is accompanied by sustainability and simplification priorities.
Featured Story
UN Pension Fund back on track after 2022, as low costs pay off
The United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund, UNJSPF, is clawing back 2022 losses with assets under management currently valued at $82 billion and the fund experiencing a positive return of 5 per cent so far this year.
Featured Story
Norway’s Ministry of Finance warns ESG may get more challenging
Democratic erosion, protectionism, inter-country rivalry and economic decoupling will have implications for economic growth and financial returns ahead, warns a recent White Paper from Norway’s Ministry of Finance, guardian of the giant $1.3 trillion Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG). Both financial and non-financial risk will increase as the economic centre of gravity increasingly shifts towards […]
Featured Story
West Virginia CIO fears anti-ESG politics threaten fiduciary independence
Like many other US pension funds, West Virginia Investment Management Board’s (IMB) proxy vote has been a lightning rod for anti-ESG sentiment. CEO/CIO, Craig Slaughter explains why he fears recent legislative changes could herald the beginning of a threat to the fund's fiduciary independence.
Risk
Turmoil at Alecta as CEO fired and equity revamp promised
Alecta, Sweden’s biggest pension fund with $110 billion of assets under management, has fired its chief executive Magnus Billing following nearly $2 billion of losses incurred from last month’s US banking crisis. The pension fund is also beginning an enquiry into how it manages equity.
Real Estate
Oregon’s core real estate revamp pays off
A large allocation to core real estate and separately-managed accounts, which have improved alignment and allowed significant fee savings, plus a strategic pivot to multi-family and industrial exposure, has all paid off at Oregon.
Investor Profile
CDPQ’s real estate arm Ivanhoé Cambridge talks agility and evolution
Two thirds of Ivanhoé Cambridge's real estate allocation used to be invested in return-dragging office and retail assets. Now, in a complete reversal, two thirds is invested in logistics and residential real estate alongside a growing allocation to alternative life sciences
Risk
CalPERS weathers SVB hit; resilience and transparency pays
Norway's sovereign wealth fund and Sweden’s largest pension fund Alecta are among funds with heavy losses from the SVB collapse. For CalPERS, which only had a small exposure, the tumultuous weekend highlighted the importance of resilience and transparency with the team quick to identify exposures and provide analysis.
Stanford 2018
FIS Stanford Photo Gallery
View photos from the 2018 Fiduciary Investors Symposium, held at Stanford University, United States.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Featured Story
Fixed income and active equity pay off at Brazil’s FUNCEF
Switching out of equities into fixed income last year has helped swell returns at Brazil’s Fundação dos Economiários Federais, FUNCEF. Other return-boosting strategies included active equity investment.
Risk
Reversal of investment themes demands investors change their assumptions
Investors are currently facing the end of uncertainty around assumptions they have made for decades, and need to shore up their portfolios with greater inflation protection, more active management, and by fostering innovation, according to chief strategist at the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario.
FIS Singapore 2023
Giant sovereign, pension funds re-think portfolios as market shifts
Speaking at Conexus Financial’s Fiduciary Investors’ Symposium held in Singapore, leaders from sovereign wealth funds in Singapore and Malaysia, along with United States pension giant CalSTRS, discussed how investors are viewing global macro risks and opportunities, and strategies they are considering to future-proof their portfolios.
Featured Story
Sweden’s AP Funds emphasise the long-term as returns take a hit
This time last year, Sweden’s four buffer funds reported the best returns in their history. Fast forward 12 months, and the four funds have posted losses thanks to allocations to equities and fixed income dragging their portfolios down.
Investor Profile
Future Fund sceptical on correlations
The Future Fund, Australia’s A$226 billion sovereign wealth fund, has embarked on an ambitious project instigated during the crisis which includes re-examining its investment assumptions, risk tolerance and the way it allocates capital. Amanda White talks to the fund’s new CIO, Sue Brake about where the fund will be allocating in the future including alternatives and active management.
Investor Profile
The impact of technology on investments
Harshal Chaudhari recently sidestepped from his role as company-wide CIO at IBM, looking after $150 billion in pension assets, to a new role as the tech giant’s chief analytics officer. He spoke to Top1000Funds about the strategy he ran at the pension fund, his wider thoughts on the global economy and the impact of technology on the investment world.
Risk
Risk aversion matters: life-cycle design
A key issue in life-cycle fund design is setting the right ‘glide path’ for switching from growth to defensive assets over time. As it turns out, risk aversion is far more important than pension fund balance. New research raises a note of caution over offering a single, one-size-fits-all life-cycle fund.
Strategy
Tough times greet new CalPERS CIO
Ben Meng isn’t easing into his role. The new CIO of CalPERS faces three new board members, a stressed private equity program and executive turnover, all under the pressure of a 70 per cent funded status and a maturing membership at the $340 billion fund.