equity markets – Benefits Canada.com

Reliance on premium technology stocks limiting diversification for institutional investors: expert

bmcgovern — Thu, 16 May 2024 15:00:47 +0000

Institutional investors are limiting portfolio diversification through overexposure to a selected group of U.S. technology stocks, says Alec Murray, senior vice-president and head of equity client portfolio managers at Amundi Asset Management. Since the beginning of 2023, he says, public equities have offered strong returns largely due to the performance of a concentrated group of technology […]

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Three lessons 2020 taught institutional investors

mschmit — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 06:04:43 +0000

After years of relatively stable appreciation in global fixed-income and equity markets, investors were thrust into dramatic turbulence in the first quarter of 2020, as COVID-19 sent shockwaves through markets. From Feb. 20 to March 23, the S&P/TSX Composite Total Return Index lost 37.20 per cent of its value in a mere 22 trading days, […]

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Pension funds playing defence amid coronavirus crisis

mschmit — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 04:32:11 +0000

Despite several bumps in the decade since the 2008/09 financial crisis, the swift and brutal crash in global equity prices when the coronavirus was declared a pandemic sent pension investors reaching for their playbooks to implement defensive strategies to mitigate the damage. “People have worked very hard at just acting on the set strategies that […]

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DB pensions’ funding positions recovering, but major risks ahead: reports

mschmit — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 04:09:00 +0000

The funded positions of Canadian defined benefit pension plans continued to recover in the third quarter of 2020, but major risks lie ahead, according to both Mercer Canada’s latest pension health index and Aon’s latest median solvency ratio survey. Mercer’s index, which represents the solvency ratio of a hypothetical DB pension plan, increased from 101 […]

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Is there a sweet spot for risk limits?

mschmit — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 03:45:48 +0000

Looking at public equity market charts for the year so far, many form a V-shape. In these V-shaped situations of rapid decline followed almost immediately by a strong recovery, two very different investment scenarios can prove beneficial, according to a recent blog by Reka Janosik, vice-president at MSCI Research and Thomas Verbraken, the organization’s executive […]

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Now is the time to fix capital accumulation plans

mschmit — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 04:17:22 +0000

The collapse in the equity markets has damaged capital accumulation plan retirement accounts. Governments need to level the playing field between defined benefit plans and CAPs, which include defined contribution plans, registered retirement savings plans and pooled registered pension plans, to assist capital accumulation plan members in rebuilding their retirement accounts. If investments are not […]

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Diworsification: How hiring too many asset managers can cancel out benefits

mschmit — Fri, 31 Jan 2020 04:41:53 +0000

Discovering moments of mispricing is the soul of generating active returns, says Wylie Tollette executive vice-president of client portfolio solutions at Franklin Templeton Investments. But some investors, eager to discover opportunities to add alpha to their portfolio mix, may accidentally harness so many sources that their efforts to diversify actually hinder the benefits of doing […]

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OPTrust Boosts Funded Status to 111%

mschmit — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 06:31:23 +0000

Solid 9.5% return in 2017 lead by public, private equities performance

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Hefty Equity Returns Give U.S. Institutions a Boost

mschmit — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 09:38:21 +0000

Northern Trust data confirms strong gains in 2017

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Equity Market Performance Strengthens DB Solvency

mschmit — Thu, 04 Jan 2018 10:09:08 +0000

Mercer report shows good news - but can it last?

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