TD Asset Management Inc. is launching a new fund to meet the needs of institutional investors looking for exposure to global real estate markets. The fund, which includes both direct and indirect global real estate investments, was seeded in 2019 and has exposure to more than 600 properties in approximately 15 countries. It includes office, […]
Historically, the expertise and tools required in cancer research had little, if nothing, to do with the skills and tools used in quantitative finance. But new machine learning techniques are proving useful in both health and finance. A working paper by Zura Kakushadze, president and co-founder of Quantigic Solutions and a professor at the Free […]
In both good and bad economic times, people will inevitably get sick and require health care. So when markets are down, health care may be a good defensive play for institutional investors. “Including wars, depressions [and] recessions, health-care spending keeps increasing,” says Sam Ifergan, founder and chief executive officer of iGan Partners, a venture capital […]
Around the world, people are streamlining their everyday tasks by asking Siri or Alexa for help. And now, the chatbot concept is becoming useful in fixed income investing. AllianceBernstein has introduced a chatbot called Abbie for its professional investors to use. “We’ve integrated Abbie into all areas of our investment process to help us invest […]
In the world of defined contribution pensions, a plan’s investment menu is important because members’ choices are constrained by the funds that are available. And, while some may think it’s sufficient to use a third-party advisor for a DC plan, new research out of the University of Missouri suggested otherwise. The new paper, which will […]
There are some major disruptions and challenges facing humanity. But, where there are challenges, there can also be opportunities. One example of a disruptive trend is aging, with people living longer. “That’s going to have, I think, pretty big implications for pension plans because we’re going to have to keep paying those benefits even more […]
A topic that has received a lot of attention recently in many markets, especially the United States, is the fall in the number of listed companies, said Jay Ritter, the Joseph Cordell Eminent Scholar in the finance department at the University of Florida, speaking at the Canadian Investment Review‘s 2019 Investment Innovation Conference in November. […]
By looking at what went wrong with financial innovations of the past, investors can learn how to protect themselves and look for opportunities going forward, said James Weatherall, professor of logic and the philosophy of science at the University of California, Irvine, speaking at Canadian Investment Review‘s 2019 Investment Innovation Conference in November. As an […]
Investors are waiting for some of the conflicts causing global uncertainty to be resolved. But will they get their wish in 2020? “We’re entering the year, the decade, on pretty unstable footing,” said Dawn Desjardins, vice-president and deputy chief economist at the Royal Bank of Canada, during the keynote session at the Canadian Investment Review’s 2019 […]
Since the financial crisis, the Pension Plan for the Employees of Concordia University has transformed the way it approaches investments by introducing its first funding policy and revamping its investment policy. Historically, the plan had a 60/40 asset mix and its board of directors was completely focused on the asset side of the equation, says […]