The New Jersey Division of Investment, which manages the $67.3 billion in state pension funds and was the best-performing US fund last year, has made some dramatic changes to its asset allocation in line with its objective of relying less on public equities for returns.
Pension funds unite: you can double returns
Paul Woolley insists that he is pro market forces; he is not some sort of Trotskyite. A cursory glance at some of the research work he is either doing or financing might prompt scepticism. But this urbane Londoner who established the top-shelf GMO quant shop in Europe is mainly concerned about inefficiencies and mispricing. And maybe greed. Greg Bright spoke with him about his latest research.
Study links executives’ pay and behaviour
This research, commissioned by APG (the investment division of ABP, the €208 billion Dutch pension fund), examines the published literature on the link between remuneration and executive behaivour. It was conducted by the London Business School.
What investors really want
While the models of expected returns are evolving, they still do not recognise the role of expressive and emotional characteristics. In this guest editorial in the Financial Analysts Journal, Meir Statman, Glenn Klimek Professor of Finance at Santa Clara University, California, proposes including characteristics such as affect, social responsibility, status and patriotism in models of expected returns .
In pursuit of the perfect fee model
Matteo Dante Perruccio and Mark Barker, chief executive and co-chief investment officer of Hermes BPK, the boutique fund of funds majority-owned by Hermes Fund Managers in turn owned by the BT Pension Scheme, speak to Amanda White about the benefits of focusing on investment management, and not asset gathering, in the hedge fund game and why alternative fee structures can work.
CalPERS to hold public board meetings
CalPERS’ remaining board meetings for the year, in May, July and September, will be open to the public as the fund deliberates a full asset-liability assessment, culminating in a potential change to the benchmark rate of return in December.
