Businesses should be forced to pay a levy to support robust shareholder engagement, says Peter Butler, chief executive of Governance for Owners (GO), a UK shareholder rights partnership, because effective stewardship will only become a fixture of the institutional investment industry when it carries a big price tag. He spoke with Simon Mumme.
Efficient indices outperform cap-weighted
A new series of efficient indices, launched by FTSE and the EDHEC-Risk Institute, which aims to capture equity market returns with an improved risk/reward efficiency, outperform their market-cap weighted counterparts over five years in every region except Asia Pacific ex-Japan.
World’s largest DC plan to tender investments
The $244 billion Thrift Savings Plan, the largest defined contribution plan in the world, faces an enormous operational challenge this year as it moves from an opt-in to an opt-out default for US federal employees. Amanda White spoke with executive director Greg Long about the fund’s plans for 2010, which include a substantial investment tender.
Mercer survey compares use of active management
In analysis completed for the Norwegian Ministry of Finance, Mercer has conducted a survey of active management, assessing the use and performance of active management at the total fund and asset class levels for 14 pension funds with combined assets of $950 billion, including eight funds from Europe and three from North America.
Norway’s largest fund rejects passive management
A complete evaluation of active management including reports by Mercer and an international group of professors, has resulted in the Norges Bank Investment Management, manager of the $375 billion Government Pension Fund-Global, staunchly favouring active management, with the bank’s Governor and executive director of the NBIM describing “a passive, uninformed approach to operational decisions is an alternative without a sound theoretical or practical justification”.
What a difference a year makes
A joint study by LIMRA , the International Foundation for Retirement Education and the Society of Actuaries into the effects of the financial crisis on how retired individuals with investable assets make decisions about investing their assets and purchasing financial products has found they are more risk averse and less confident post the crisis.
