Exchange-traded funds have changed the nature of the debate between active management and passive investing. Passive investing once involved holding a broad-market index fund and comparing performance against an active manager who used the same benchmark. What essentially differentiated an actively managed fund was that it was exposed to individual stock risk, according to a […]
There’s a global shift in the asset allocations of institutional investors afoot toward riskier, less liquid assets, according to a recent survey. bfinance’s latest Pension Funds & Insurance Asset Allocation Survey of institutional investors in Europe and North America finds that among core asset classes, the three-year outlook for equity continues to slide while bullishness […]
Here’s another sign that the financial crisis is behind us. Sceptre Investment Counsel Limited and Fiera Capital, Inc. have signed a definitive agreement to merge the two companies. The announcement may well be saying that resurgent Canadian companies have enough cash, credit and confidence to undertake such deals. The new company will be named Fiera […]
In our May 2009 Top 40 Money Managers Report, institutional money managers were seeing red, logging mammoth losses in the great train wreck that was 2008. Just last year, we reported that the Top 40 money managers had $300 billion shaved off the value of assets under management, prompting one manager to comment that the […]
Record-high levels of currency volatility in the world markets over the last few years have left a growing number of Canadian institutional investors pondering the suitability of their currency investment policy. Over the last decade, investors have increasingly moved their asset mix toward foreign assets. Canadian investors first diversified their equity portfolios with investments in […]
Toronto’s Sheraton Center was the venue on Tuesday for a global overview of alternative asset management from the perspective of one of the world’s largest private equity managers. Stephen Schwarzman, chairman and co-founder of the Blackstone Group presented his perspective of investment opportunities in his address, “Prospects for Global Economic Recovery”. Asia—which he described as […]
The news over the past few years has been dominated by stories of massive frauds and Ponzi schemes—Enron, Bernie Madoff and Earl Jones to name a few. We have also witnessed spectacular investment meltdowns such as Long Term Capital Management and Amaranth. More recently, there has also been much discussion about the moral ambiguity of […]
Active management is not dead, judging by the results of the first three months of 2010. Three quarters of Canadian Large Cap active managers outperformed S&P/TSX, according to the Russell Active Manager Report, the highest level since the second quarter of 2004. “The last two quarters have really highlighted the benefits of active management,” says […]
Many products in the institutional investment market were tested by the 2008/09 financial crisis, and target date funds (TDFs) were no exception. Still relatively new in Canada, TDFs have existed in the U.S. since the 1990s. In 2009, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Labor held a hearing to examine the […]
Restless institutional investors eager for fresh perspectives on liability driven investing propelled a 22% increase in global search activity in 2009, according to Mercer. The consultant advised on 826 manager searches globally last year, up from 676 in 2008, representing US$97.2 billon in assets placed by 406 institutional investors. Canada Canadian search activity increased from […]