global financial crisis – Benefits Canada.com

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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The case for eventual inflation

mschmit — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 08:28:23 +0000

While inflation never materialized after the last financial crisis and the subsequent economic expansion, this time will be different, said Erik Weisman, portfolio manager and chief economist at MFS Investment Management, when speaking at the Canadian Investment Review’s Investment Innovation Conference in November. After the global financial crisis, quantitative easing didn’t generate inflation because the […]

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Nav Canada, Goodyear Canada share experiences with LDI in low interest rate world

mschmit — Thu, 19 Nov 2020 04:04:29 +0000

Despite the low interest rate environment, it still makes sense for defined benefit pension plan sponsors to adopt a liability-driven investment strategy, said Serge Lapierre, global head of LDI at Manulife Investment Management, during a webinar sponsored by the firm on Monday. LDI investing is a risk management framework, he noted. “It’s not an asset […]

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How has coronavirus impacted private equity markets?

mschmit — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 05:14:13 +0000

The private equity market was on a hot streak coming into 2020 and despite the economic wreckage caused by the coronavirus, fundraising has generally held up, said Jamie Becker, counsel for private equity and pension fund investments at Torys LLP, when speaking at the Canadian Investment Review’s 2020 Global Investment Conference in September. “There was […]

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How can pension plan sponsors manage factor exposure in equity portfolios?

mschmit — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 03:56:43 +0000

While factor behaviour tends to be consistent in market crashes and corrections, individual factor performance varies over the medium term. As such, institutional investors should maintain diversified exposure across key equity factors including value, quality, momentum, size and low volatility, according to a new paper by Mercer. The paper explored the past three financial crises: […]

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LAPP downside protection strategy saves almost $1.9 billion

mschmit — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 10:59:37 +0000

The volatility caused by the coronavirus pandemic made the first quarter of 2020 rough for many Canadian defined benefit pension plans. In early June, the Local Authorities Pension Plan Corp., which is mandated to invest with the Alberta Investment Management Corp., said it began the year with $50.6 billion in assets under management and ended […]

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Valuation uncertainty, not liquidity, driver behind real estate fund suspensions

mschmit — Mon, 04 May 2020 04:02:13 +0000

During the global financial crisis, certain real estate funds were suspended because of liquidity constraints, but during the coronavirus downturn, it’s valuation uncertainty that’s causing suspensions, says Steve Marino, senior vice-president of portfolio management at Great-West Life Realty Advisors Inc, a subsidiary of the Canada Life Assurance Co. On March 20, 2020, Canada Life announced […]

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Lesson One: Funding Risk

mschmit — Mon, 31 May 2010 15:50:43 +0000

2008 wasn't that bad - plan sponsors should have been better prepared.

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Redefining Diversification

mschmit — Thu, 20 May 2010 04:27:58 +0000

Coverage of the 2010 Global Investment Conference.

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Psychoanalysis of the Global Crisis

mschmit — Tue, 11 May 2010 05:43:00 +0000

It's time to veer away from statistically driven risk models.

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