In my more than three decades working with the institutional investor community—is it really that long?!—I’ve learned that setting up consistent listening points is a good way to better understand what causes people pain. This is particularly true with the asset owner community, an influential and powerful group of investors whose opinions are sometimes held close but always insightful.

These are the investment professionals who oversee significant pools of capital for the largest global public and corporate pension plans. They are fiduciaries, meaning they take their jobs very seriously and answer to a very demanding set of board members and other key stakeholders. Their decisions also affect the retirement security of everyday people who are the ultimate end-investors: Think firefighters, teachers, and construction workers, for example. These large pension funds and other asset owners have a lot on their plates, and for that reason, it is sometimes difficult to get their ear and gauge their opinion on global investment issues.

That’s why I am so excited about our annual conversation with asset owners—the Morningstar Voice of the Asset Owner Survey. We’ve just completed the fourth year of our global survey, which blends qualitative and quantitative survey formats to better understand what’s on the minds of asset owners and the key issues on their radar.

What did we learn by reaching out to more than 500 asset owners around the world with combined assets under management north of $19 trillion? Quite a bit.

Trade Wars, Not Turf Wars, Top Global Asset Owners’ Worry Lists

Asset owners were asked about the materiality, or financial relevance, of a range of geopolitical issues to their investment strategies. This year, global trade issues outweighed geopolitical conflicts as a major concern. In fact, global trade disputes, a new US administration, and currency volatility far outweighed ongoing global conflicts such as those in Russia-Ukraine and the Middle East.

Notably, the rising influence of generative artificial intelligence is becoming a significant factor in the institutional investment decision-making process, another issue related to trade and commerce that is driving rapid change in the global market ecosystem.

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