A prolonged rise in funding levels positions U.S. corporate pension to change how they are investing and hedging. While some sponsoring companies have outsourced their portfolios while others consider reopening long-frozen or closed plans to enable sponsors’ to repurpose surpluses.
Some pension CIOs are adjusting their market scenario analyses to make sure their portfolios are well positioned to capture upside and avoid drawdowns.
The decision to outsource investments often faces pushback from investment staff, many of whom soon have to find new roles.
Plan sponsors’ needs for long-dated bonds and the role of fixed-income managers may change as average liabilities fall to fewer than 10 years.
In response, plan sponsors are strategizing about more than pension risk transfers.
Consideration of how this type of investor is institutionalizing and starting to compete with larger institutions for talent and ideas.
Expansion can warrant professionalization and put offices in competition for personnel with asset managers and institutions.
A review of tools and strategies asset owners are using to manage all the different risks that face institutional investors in 2026.
Geopolitics, trade conflicts and persistent inflation are top of mind for investors.
A head of insurance client solutions stresses why long-term investors need to distinguish between measurable risks and the broader uncertainty inherent in investing.
To the consternation and delight of risk teams everywhere, there is no one-size-fits-all measure, writes a senior strategist from Capital Group.
Fund financing, reporting and risk management are investors’ top concerns, according to a CSC survey.
What do institutional investors view as the most efficient and effective way for pensions, endowments and SWFs to manage their investments, active management, passive management or some combination of both?
Much depends on an organization’s portfolio objectives.
Shifts coming at the portfolio construction and market levels mean allocators need to stay focused on their goals.
Both approaches have benefits, but the current market volatility has changed how allocators weigh cost and governance differences.
Big bets and letting winners run helped Danoff’s active equity fund consistently beat indexes.
As indexes are increasingly dominated by large companies, managers tout active strategies as a solution.
Higher tax bills, a growing need for liquidity and federal funding could change how endowments invest for the institutions they serve.
Higher tax bills may change the risk/return profile for a variety of asset classes that have long been favored by endowments and foundations.
Despite emerging headwinds for higher-education institutions, these long-term investors are staying true to what they know.
The Intentional Endowments Network reviews what endowments and foundations need to know about artificial intelligence.
Moving to an outsourced CIO model has become a necessity for many small teams.
Forces from the decline of defined benefit pension funds to the rise of artificial intelligence are changing the asset management industry, how does it affect institutional allocators?
Some see exchange-traded funds’ steady growth as indicating sound structure may be more important than artificial intelligence innovations.
Limited partners have questions about their managers’ quest for new sources of capital.
The increased agility available in public markets might provide more value than the higher-return expectations in private markets.
U.S. fiscal and monetary policies, new bilateral trade agreements, along with ongoing geopolitical and technology changes are likely to drive investment markets in 2026.
Both fiscal and monetary stimulus should boost earnings in the U.S. and abroad, with dollar weakness continuing to underpin international stocks.
Commodities rise; the dollar falls amidst deglobalization.
Market experts Indrani De, of FTSE Russell; Rebecca Patterson, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; and Rachel Ziemba, of Ziemba Insights; share forward-looking analysis of the forces that will shape the U.S. economy and on what they expect to drive markets in 2026.
Additional retail and retirement-plan demand are expected to broaden distribution of private markets, but they will also bring scrutiny and comparisons to public markets.
Market swings have been all too common since last year, leading investors to warn against complacency.
As institutional investors eye fixed income opportunities in 2026, they are focused less on where to invest and more about whether they are being paid enough for the specific risks they are taking.
With inflation data muddied, rate cuts uncertain and private credit facing tougher tests, money managers say the next year will reward investors who get specific—about curve, structure and currency.
As 2026 kicks off, investors are ‘trying to extrapolate potential risk factors’ and looking to diversify.
Sub-investment-grade bonds have outperformed all but emerging market debt.
Tariffs, uncertainty about the future of Federal Reserve independence, and rising U.S. deficits could drive yields higher.
In highly concentrated markets, allocators are balancing risk and uncertainty as they manage, and take advantage of, ongoing volatility.
While most forecasts are optimistic for next year, volatility is projected to continue, likely resulting in a variety of strategies rising to navigate it.
With key inflation and jobs reports delayed, allocators brace for a foggy December—balancing risk, volatility and uncertainty about the Federal Reserve’s next move.
Institutions might be willing to maintain their bet on concentrated markets, if top-performing equities grind higher.
Institutional investors are looking at exchange-trade funds, beyond short-term uses, as ETFs’ inherent liquidity, transparency, diversification and low cost make them a useful tool for portfolio management.
Once used for cash or transition management, exchange-traded funds are taking a bigger role in institutional portfolios.
While not a driver of growth in exchange-traded funds, institutional investors have found new use cases for the investment vehicles.
Institutions are backing exchange-traded funds as anchor investors, but they may have to sacrifice some control to reap the benefits.
The firm has applied for permission to launch 13 exchange-traded-fund share classes, but significant movement is not anticipated in the immediate future, experts say.
Equity exchange-traded funds, rather than fixed-income options, are the top choice of insurance investors, according to State Street’s Meta Curry.
Technology alone does not generate alpha, but artificial intelligence can inform the investment research process, while human analysts are better when ‘intangible’ information is involved.
Artificial intelligence can make a major contribution by interpreting data, but it will not generate alpha on its own; human analysts remain better with ‘intangible’ information.
Asset managers should consider how artificial intelligence brings value before integrating the software.
Examining what institutional investors are saying about their private market investments, the evolving asset classes and risk profiles in the different segments of the space and the industries that are driving investment growth.
Liquidity requirements reframe the need for diversification.
How the recent executive order on private assets in defined contribution plans could pave the way for investment committee excellence.
What CIOs should be watching as private lending moves into the mainstream of corporate financing and institutional portfolios.
Technology, data collection and increasingly specialized strategies give institutional investors opportunities and challenges when managing and measuring portfolio and manager performance.
Technology, data collection and better funded statuses have asset owners rethinking traditional benchmarks.
Investors are increasingly seeking to customize their investments to their specific mandates.
