April 2022
11Apr

The Association between Mandated Environmental Liability Recognition and Voluntary ESG Disclosure Quality

By Daniel A. Bens, Cai Chen & Peter R. Joos We examine the association between mandated Asset Retirement Obligations (ARO), i.e., environmental clean-up costs of normal operations estimated on the balance sheet, and the quality of voluntary ESG disclosures. We hypothesize that when firms recognize larger AROs with higher accuracy that this effort will spillover into enhanced voluntary disclosure of a broad range of ESG outcomes. Empirical evidence supports this hypothesis. In a sample of environmentally sensitive industries, we find...

April 11, 2022
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ESG and Private Market Assets: Pension and Insurance Investors Shifting the Trillions (2022 – 2026)
07Apr

ESG and Private Market Assets: Pension and Insurance Investors Shifting the Trillions (2022 – 2026)

By M. Nicolas J. Firzli, Nick Sherry & Guan Seng Khoo The co-authors of the article, are amongst the original coiners of term such as “infrastructure as an asset class” and “pension superpowers.” They also predicted, at the onset of the Covid Crisis, that a “historic realignment on the asset allocation front is happening precisely at the moment when ESG is moving centre stage: even in once staunchly neoliberal jurisdictions like Texas, Alaska or Switzerland, the smart money is betting...

April 7, 2022
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March 2022
31Mar

Class of 2022

By abrdn Our second iteration of the Class of report series paints a picture of what the Class of 2022 have in store for their retirement – from how they plan to spend their time to how prepared they are forwhat is to come. We’ve also spoken to those who retired in 2021 to see how they’ve got on in their first year of retirement and if there’s anything they’d do differently. The Class of series surveys 2,000 UK adults who are...

March 31, 2022
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How Do Private Equity Fees Vary Across Public Pensions?
31Mar

How Do Private Equity Fees Vary Across Public Pensions?

By Juliane Begenau & Emil Siriwardane We study how investment fees vary within private-capital funds. Net-of-fee return clustering suggests that most funds have two tiers of fees, and we decompose differences across tiers into both management and performance-based fees. Managers of venture capital funds and those in high demand are less likely to use multiple fee schedules. Some investors consistently pay lower fees relative to others within their funds. Investor size, experience, and past performance explain some but not all...

March 31, 2022
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Sustainable Investment & Asset Management: From Resistance to Retooling
25Mar

Sustainable Investment & Asset Management: From Resistance to Retooling

By Virginia E. Harper Ho Globally, market demand is rising for investment products and practices that take “environmental, social, and governance” (ESG) factors into account, challenging asset managers and capital markets to adapt in new ways. This chapter outlines why sustainability issues are increasingly relevant to mainstream asset owners and asset managers. It then explores the evolving regulatory landscape for sustainable investment in the U.S., focusing on the degree to which it supports or facilitates ESG integration into investment management...

March 25, 2022
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25Mar

Global Pension Risk Survey 2021/22. UK survey findings. The DB pension risk management journey

By AON We have been carrying out the Global Pension Risk Survey every two years for over a decade and it gives the industry great insight into how the pensions landscape has developed. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, it created many challenges for sponsors, pension schemes and their members. We saw sponsors and trustees reassessing the risks that they faced. While the impact was not negative for all pension schemes, there was a large market crash which had a...

March 25, 2022
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Mainstreaming the Trasition to a Net-Zero Economy
10Mar

Mainstreaming the Trasition to a Net-Zero Economy

By Group of Thirty The evidence that climate change is posing unprecedented risks to our livelihoods is overwhelming. Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) have reached the highest levels in 800,000 years. Over the last three decades, the number of registered severe weather events has tripled. The cost of weather-related insurance losses has increased eightfold over the past decade, to an average of US$60 billion; and average uninsured losses from weather events have increased sevenfold. Still, these effects pale in significance...

March 10, 2022
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February 2022
24Feb

GEPF Annual Report 2020/2021

By GEPF Economic environment The financial year ending 31 March 2021, was a ‘tale of two worlds’, with strong recovery from developed financial markets being contrasted by weak economic growth in most emerging markets. This effect was also mirrored by the divergence in vaccination rates between developed and emerging markets. Locally, the picture has been familiar. There was very strong growth in financial markets, however, this needs to be contrasted by the stark economic climate in South Africa. The impact...

February 24, 2022
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17Feb

Retirement in America: Time to rethink and retool

By PWC A range of factors have put intensifying pressures on the US retirement system in recent years, leaving the industry facing a decelerating revenue growth outlook. A number of these challenges — fee pressure, underfunded retirement plans, an aging population — are structural and unlikely to ease. Many retirement players have been unable to outrun even one of these factors: fee pressure. Rising industry-wide fee pressure is placing constraints on the profitability of US retirement firms with average 401(k)...

February 17, 2022
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17Feb

Global Pension Assets Study – 2022

By Thinking Ahead Institute The Global Pension Assets Study estimates global pension fund assets across 22 major pension markets (the P22). These geographies now total a record US$56.6 trillion in pension assets and account for 76% of the GDP of these economies. The study, conducted by WTW and the Thinking Ahead Institute since the 1990s, includes an analysis of the seven largest markets (the P7): Australia, Canada, Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland, UK and US comprise 92% of total pension assets, unchanged...

February 17, 2022
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