Investments of more than $100 billion are required to rebalance the equity allocations of the largest US corporate defined benefit plans, as they join their international peers, registering record losses for 2008 and pushing them deep into underfunded territory.
Casey Quirk has released its inaugural Global Asset & Flows Review, powered by eVestment Alliance. This new publication, issued quarterly, provides key information about estimated assets under management and net new inflows reported by fund managers worldwide, with a particular focus on the U.S. institutional fund management marketplace.
Industriens Pension is one of very few pension funds globally to achieve a positive return in 2008. Kristen Paech talks to chief investment officer, Jan Ostergaard, about what drove the positive return, and the fund’s upcoming merger with two small Danish funds.
The home country bias of US public pension plans is diminishing, with the average allocation to US equities, falling from 42.3 per cent to 38.1 per cent from 2003 to 2008.
Barclays has confirmed it has held discussions with a number of potential buyers over the sale of its profitable exchange-traded funds business, iShares, but says no decision regarding the sale of any assets has been made.
Wilshire will drop Dow Jones as the calculating engine of its indices, and will independently managed its more than 200 indices, including the high-profile Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 index, from April 1.