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Featured Story
Utah Retirement Systems: Why ESG is a waste of time
Divestment doesn't work, scope 3 reporting will tie companies in regulatory knots and ESG integration threatens pension funds long term returns and their ability to finance the transition. Utah Retirement Systems' John Skjervem says the only way to solve the climate emergency is to keep investing in fossil fuels.
Investor Profile
Switzerland’s Publica hit by equity fixed income correlation
Hit by last year's unusual correlation between equities and bonds, and in a bid to avoid higher long-term inflation, Switzerland's €45.6 billion Publica kick-starts a new strategic asset allocation that will reduce the bond allocation and result in a search for new managers.
Investor Profile
NYCRS readies to allocate more to private markets
Since joining $233.5 billion New York City Retirement Systems (NYCRS) six months ago, CIO and Deputy Comptroller for Asset Management Steven Meier has spent the bulk of his time getting under the hood of the private markets allocation, engaging with business partners and meeting some of the best minds in the industry to discuss the […]
Research
WEF lays out global risks ahead: Cost of living and climate dominate
The world faces a set of risks that feel both wholly new and eerily familiar. The Global Risks Report 2023 explores some of the most severe risks we may face over the next decade.
Asset Allocation
Why private debt is pivotal to Queensland Investment Corporation
Queensland Investment Corporation's (QIC) CIO of State Investments, Allison Hill, explains why private debt is a crucial part of the portfolio.
Investor Profile
Wellcome Trust: Hedge funds, property and low allocation to equity delivers
Allocations to property, some hedge funds and holding most of its assets in currencies other than sterling, helped Wellcome Trust withstand the impact of last year's simultaneous decline in prices in equities, government bonds and corporate credit on a scale not seen for many years.
Investor Profile
After the horror of 2022, UTIMCO says asset classes set to do well
It’s possible that a traditional 60:40 passive portfolio could get close to a target return of 7-8 per cent this year in a trajectory not seen for the last 12 years, according to Rich Hall, CIO of $65 billion University of Texas endowment.
Governance
Don’t ignore culture in trying to solve the investment puzzle
Better internal investment integration and co-ordination will underpin long-term returns for two of the world’s largest investors, CPP and CalSTRS, but they’re also closely focused on how cultural issues – including diversity and team-building – affect whole-enterprise performance.
Sustainability
Active, in-house and sustainability: The driving factors at AP3
AP3’s ability to actively benefit from volatile markets is rooted in a reform process undertaken by CIO Pablo Bernengo, replacing decade-old, separate alpha and beta allocations with a traditional asset class structures but avoiding silos. Active risk and sustainability go hand in hand, he says, and is a 2023 focus.
Investor Profile
NZ Super culls equities, focuses on impact
New Zealand Super has radically slashed the holdings in its passive equities portfolio as it re-aligns the portfolio with a Paris-aligned benchmark. It’s part of the fund’s shift to a sustainable finance focus which includes improving the fund’s already-good ESG profile and a more long-term future focus on impact investing.
Sustainability
Railpen lays out 2023 voting policies; mental health a priority
Railpen lists climate, cyber security and mental health in the workplace amongst its key engagement and AGM voting priorities in 2023
Sustainability
Mandates need innovating to encompass sustainable investing
The credibility of transition plans is under scrutiny because while sustainable investing is booming real world impact is going in the wrong direction. In response investors need to innovate on the nature of investment mandates says Colin le Duc, a founding partner of Generation.
Sustainability
How Canada’s PSP Investments is getting to grips with climate data
In an interview with Herman Bril, PSP Investments’ new head of responsible investment, Top1000funds.com looks at how the fund is collecting and reporting on sustainability information based on a technology-enabled, data-driven approach that spans a bespoke, green taxonomy for climate investing to ESG scores derived from AI.
Asset Classes
Positive stock and bond correlation will make portfolios more volatile
Today's positive stock-bond correlation means balanced portfolios will be more volatile without the natural hedge that bonds have long provided to stocks.
Real Estate
Why real estate investors can forge ahead in quest to cut emissions
Real estate investors are in prime position to cut emissions with the support of benchmarks and standards and a collective voice.
Investor Profile
Equities allocation damaging biodiversity: Ilmarinen study
A recent biodiversity risk analysis at Ilmarinen, Finland’s €60 billion pension insurer, found one third of the companies in its listed equities portfolio have a damaging impact on biodiversity. The study is part of a push to integrate biodiversity into its investment processes.
Investor Profile
Why AP4 invests with emerging hedge fund managers
In contrast to other investors, AP4 invests the vast majority of its hedge fund allocation with emerging managers in a strategy it believes taps both outperformance and lower fees. We look at how it spots talent and what strategies it focuses on.
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
Investment industry needs to rethink strategy: Future Fund CEO
Persistently challenging market conditions driven by stagflation, uncertainty and volatility, the response to climate change and populism increasingly shaping government decisions, mean 60:40 needs a re-think according to Raphael Arndt, chief executive of the A$240 billion Future Fund.
Featured Story
USS: Low leverage and US exposure helped navigate UK bond market turmoil
Speaking at USS’s 2022 Institutions’ Meeting, Simon Pilcher told stakeholders that the asset manager had navigated market turmoil in the UK bond market by having less leverage than peer funds and diversification, explaining USS also hedges inflation and interest rate risk with US bonds.
Featured Story
NBIM to major on contrarianism and technology over the next three years
NBIM has unveiled its latest investment strategy for the period 2023 to 2025 outlining a contrarian approach and greater integration of technology in its investment processes in a quest to become the best large investment fund in the world.
Asset Allocation
GIC: Building balanced portfolios for the long run
Navigating the two challenges of heightened macro uncertainty and an increased allocation to private assets could require a fundamental evolution of the asset-allocation process, argue Grace Qiu Tiantian and Ding Li from Singapore’s GIC in a paper written with MSCI’s Peter Shepard entitled Building Balanced Portfolios for the Long Run.
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.