Interest rate levels are critically important to the financial health of defined benefit pension plans. Many DB plans are in their best financial positions in decades, largely due to the dramatic rise in interest rates over the past few years, but decreases in interest rates could pose a major risk for many plans. Changes in […]
Institutional investors don’t have to wait for choppy waters to invest in event-driven credit, according to Duncan Farley, portfolio manager on the BlueRay fixed income team at RBC Global Asset Management, speaking during the Canadian Investment Review’s 2023 Risk Management Conference. While the post-pandemic economy has negatively affected several industries, opportunities always exist for investors to […]
The International Monetary Fund is altering its expectations for global economic growth and inflation in 2023. During a recent press conference, the United Nation’s financial agency said it expects the world’s economy to grow by 2.9 per cent and the overall inflation rate to reach seven per cent this year. In January, it predicted the annual […]
Canadian institutional investors should have a strategic allocation to emerging market debt, Ward Brown, fixed income portfolio manager at MFS Investment Management, explained during his session. EM debt has two of the key characteristics needed for a strategic allocation. First, it is a good diversifier because it has low correlations with other assets commonly found […]
While politics plays a role in most investment decisions, it tends to arise on a fairly localized basis, says Michael Craig, head of the asset allocation and derivatives teams at TD Asset Management Inc. In addition, its prominence as a factor usually rises and falls on a cycle, slipping easily off investors’ radar in times […]
A new textbook on value investing is aiming to combat the academic community’s premature dismissal of the subject, says author George Athanassakos, professor of finance and the Ben Graham chair in value investing at Western University’s Ivey School of Business. “There are plenty of books on value investing — but not academic books. I decided […]
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 […]
Canadian pension plans have increased their demand for long corporate bonds, but high demand and low yields combined with a relatively small marketplace in Canada can pose challenges for investors, said Randall Malcolm, senior managing director and portfolio manager of Canadian public fixed income at SLC Management. “When we look at the supply side of […]
What are the big risks in the market? And how could the Dodd-Frank rollback help pension funds?
And why it's not time to worry about interest rate risk.