The hedge fund industry has taken a well-publicised caning over the past few years but, as the dust starts to settle on the global financial crisis, some interesting and probably long-lasting trends are emerging. Principle among these is a massive increase in concentration of mandates among the larger hedge funds.
Investor behaviour erodes performance
Performance is eroded by institutional investors’ decisions around hiring and firing managers according to the preliminary results of a behavioural study by Boston University that links qualitative factors such as committee characteristics with earlier empirical research on performance.
Investors win with new hedge fund fee model
Hermes BPK, the hedge fund-of-funds (HFoF) provider majority-owned by Hermes Fund Managers (which itself is fully-owned by the UK’s largest pension fund, the BT Pension Scheme), has completed work on an innovative performance fee model which will allow investors to clawback any unearned performance fees.
Options to improve the governance and investment of Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund
This OECD paper suggests avenues for strengthening the governance and management of the Japanese Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), the largest single pool of pension assets in the world. It says the governance stucture falls short of international best practice and in some cases does not meet some of the basic criteria contained in OECD recommendations.
Determinants of Sovereign Wealth Fund investment in private equity
This paper examines the investment patterns of 50 Sovereign Wealth Funds in 903 public and private firms over the period 1984-2009, and specifically the determinants of a SWF’s weight of direct private equity in their overall portfolio. The paper finds evidence that SWFs are more likely to invest in private firms in countries that have less developed legal systems.
Tips for DC plan design
As more plan sponsors consider introducing defined contribution plans, Towers Watson encourages the deliberation of plan design, with the ideal scheme encouraging engagement, managing savings rates and investment elections as well as expenses and communication.
