In our introductory article on volatility, A Real-Life Stress Test, we argued that the capital markets have entered a prolonged cycle of higher expected volatility.…
In recent years, Canada’s largest companies have struggled with the inherent ups and downs of managing risk in their defined benefit pension plans. Two employer-sponsored…
When it comes to reducing pension risk, there’s an interesting dynamic between desire and ability. During periods when the desire to de-risk is high, the…
For many Canadian pension investors, the Canadian dollar has been a source of tremendous volatility in recent years. After reaching a post-financial crisis high of…
Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) has reported a 9.1% rate of return on its total assets under management for the year ending December 31, 2015.…
The federal government will seek additional funding from Canada’s pension funds as it looks to invest more than $120 billion in infrastructure over the next…
Five years ago, Mats Andersson had an epiphany. The CEO of the Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund, known as AP4, was travelling to meet with…
In hindsight, everybody would have invested in Apple back when it was a smaller, obscure private company. But as its founder Steve Jobs famously once…
We’ve been called Maple Revolutionaries and the new masters of the universe. For years now, it has been a heady thing to be one of…
Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec has announced its commitment to invest US$150 million in renewable energy in India as it establishes a CDPQ…
The number of U.K. company pension schemes entering into longevity swaps and bulk-annuity deals in 2016 is expected to increase due to schemes recognizing the importance…
You can just imagine 19th-century blue-blooded jaws dropping when stock traders reportedly started the practice of sending runners across exchange floors to place bids and…
Canada’s economic conditions gradually improved in the second half of 2015 as the country climbed out of a technical recession. But as the economic tailwinds…
The vast majority (92%) of pension funds are planning to upgrade their governance model over the next 12 months, according to new research by State…
The CPP fund ended 2015 with net assets of $282.6 billion, compared to $272.9 billion at the end of the previous quarter, according to the latest…
Canada’s largest pension funds are walking away from more and more global infrastructure deals, saying that competition for assets has driven valuations too far, according to…
Canada’s top economists, strategists and portfolio managers expect tepid growth for Canada in the near term, which will result in continued low interest rates, modest…
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners are in competition to acquire Australian logistics and transport company Asciano. The company announced Thursday that it had…
Large institutional investors expect to embrace active management in 2016 to combat macro-economic trends, anticipated market volatility and divergent monetary policy, according to a new…
Whether they’re up or down, you can almost always make a case for participating in commodities markets as long as you can stomach the dizzying…
In my last article I highlighted the evolution in the way that assets have been managed and the growth in closet indexing in the investment…
Market volatility will continue into 2016, but investors shouldn’t be discouraged. They’ll still benefit more from equities than fixed income, and there may be some…
People are saving more for retirement and investing more appropriately for their age, improving the overall state of retirement readiness in the U.S., according to a…
A conversation with Joe Overdevest, portfolio manager at Pyramis Global Advisors After six years as an analyst, Joe Overdevest became a portfolio manager in October…
Recent volatility on the Chinese stock market is a timely reminder that, in the shorter term, share prices depend on many factors—not least of which…