Strong gains in equities and higher employer contributions have pushed the nation's largest employer-sponsored pension plans toward higher funding levels in 2010, Towers Watson reveals.
Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin is looking into the third-largest custody bank over its handling of foreign-exchange transactions.
The $236 billion California public pension said it has allocated $400 million toward three emerging managers in the pension fund's Manager Development Program II for public investment.
Regulators have placed more scrutiny on exchange-traded funds as institutional investors have embraced the product, Deborah Fuhr, ETF guru and global head of ETF research at BlackRock, told aiCIO.
Bruce Tomlison, Sunsuper's portfolio manager, has expressed his support of smaller hedge fund managers in favor of larger ones; consultants have an all-embracing approach, saying "it would be foolish to completely shun the large guys."
Superior active manager performance and gains in equities have propelled returns of US pension plans as well as endowments and foundations in the Northern Trust universe.
A study by JPMorgan Chase & Co. has shown that Japanese
pensions are flocking to alternatives such as hedge funds, while keeping
their investment plans intact despite crisis in the region.
News that investment managers at the Texas Teacher Retirement
System received more than double what every other state agency's top
employees have received combined since 2007 has raised concerns that
top-performing executives may flee smaller funds with less robust
compensation structures.
In response to statements by a CalPERS board member that Wall Street firms seeking to invest with public pensions should disclose if they’ve supported groups critical of government funds, industry insiders have expressed concerns over first amendment rights.
In a bid to enhance Australia's reputation as a foreign investment destination, the Australian government is considering rules that would give foreign government-owned funds a tax break.