Thought Leadership

After watching their employees successfully work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of CEOs might plan to adopt that model permanently. While this may temper demand for office space, the long-term viability of the concept is unproven. To find out how it might all play out and what it means for investors, Chief Investment Officer spoke recently with William Pattison, head of real estate research at MetLife Investment Management, and his colleague Mark Wilsmann, head of real estate equity strategies.

Institutional investors can enhance their ability to capitalize on the yield and diversification benefits of alternatives universe. This approach allows investors to stitch together multi-asset portfolios in a more efficient, coherent way. Executing this, however is no simple task. If done incorrectly, investors risk negating some of the diversification benefits that make alternatives such valuable contributors to stronger, more resilient portfolios.

Seeking value amid low rates, rising risk and political uncertainty

As interest rates continue to tumble this year, chief investment officers are left grappling with a familiar problem: finding yield in fixed income without taking on excessive risk.

“Rather than trying to predict and time interest rate levels, we think investors do better over the long-term through careful security selection in spread sectors.”

An Alternative Perspective on the Illiquidity Discount

We show that the return to a defensive equity portfolio can be decomposed into a hedging component and a component that seeks to generate returns.

Does your organization have developed investment beliefs? Learn why every investment committee needs an investment beliefs document and the six key questions that can help you develop one.

Many corporate DB plans are looking for ways to maximize the duration of their liability-hedging allocations while using as little capital as possible.

Actuarial firms, bankers and insurance companies have been urging U.S. defined benefit plan sponsors to transfer their liabilities to a third party. Transferring the total liability has proven too onerous for most plan sponsors, so these institutions have been pitching partial risk transfers (PRT) instead. However, the touted long-term cost savings and pension risk reduction may turn out to be underwhelming, if not elusive.