July 2024
01Jul

US. CalPERS breaks with its past

Over the past year, the US’s largest public pension system, CalPERS, has been making some interesting moves. CalPERS has been making commitments to private equity funds much smaller in size than it has traditionally targeted, including growth-oriented and venture capital vehicles. Historically, CalPERS has built its private equity portfolio to reflect its own massive size – choosing large funds into which it could make sizable investments that gave it outsized influence on the GP and potential access to choice economics and...

July 1, 2024
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01Jul

UK. L&G launches DC private markets offer and target date fund range

Legal & General (L&G) has launched a private markets fund and a target date fund range in a bid to offer defined contribution (DC) members the opportunity to access diversified private markets exposure. The L&G Private Markets Access Fund – which will be available for DC schemes to invest in directly and via a newly launched range of target date funds, the L&G Lifetime Advantage Funds – will offer a single point of access to a diversified portfolio of private...

July 1, 2024
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June 2024
28Jun

UK trustee boards show robust governance frameworks – survey

A recent survey conducted by WTW has shown that most UK pension schemes are not overwhelmed by the new requirements of the General Code, with only 1% of respondents expecting significant changes to comply with it. The WTW 2024 Trustee Governance Survey — of 132 trustees, pension managers, and other stakeholders in March and April 2024 – has shed light on the evolving landscape of pension scheme governance in response to the newly implemented General Code, which came into effect in March 2024. It...

June 28, 2024
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27Jun

UK. DB schemes taking steps to manage risks as funding positions improve

Defined benefit (DB) pension schemes have taken advantage of last year’s “relative calm” to make progress on endgame planning, net-zero targets, and tackling diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) issues, research from LCP has revealed. LCP’s latest Chart Your Own Course report found that many schemes have seen improvements to their funding positions and are exploring various endgame options. In particular, LCP found that completing a de-risking transaction remained a top priority for many, cited as a key priority in the coming year...

June 27, 2024
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26Jun

US. Pension fund for N.Y. public workers sees significant increase

The pension fund for public retirees in New York saw significant investment returns for the previous fiscal year, according to state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office. The New York State Common Retirement Fund had an investment return of more than 11.5 percent during the fiscal year ending on March 31, nearly double the long-term expected rate of return of 5.9 percent. The fund, which manages the money for local and state government retirees, ended the year at nearly $268 billion. While inflation persists...

June 26, 2024
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19Jun

US. Milliman analysis: Competitive pension risk transfer costs inches down in May, from 100.9% to 100.7%

Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today announced the latest results of its Milliman Pension Buyout Index (MPBI). As the pension risk transfer (PRT) market continues to grow, it has become increasingly important to monitor the annuity market for plan sponsors that are considering transferring retiree pension obligations to an insurer. During May, the estimated cost to transfer retiree pension risk to an insurer in a competitive bidding process decreased slightly, from 100.9% of a plan’s accounting...

June 19, 2024
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17Jun

Japan’s Kishida says no plan for pension fund to buy BOJ’s ETF holdings

apanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Monday he has no plan for the government's pension fund to buy the central bank's holdings of exchange-traded funds (ETF). "The Bank of Japan holds ETFs as part of its monetary policy efforts to achieve its price target. It's up to the central bank to decide on how to load the holdings," Kishida told parliament. "The government has no plan to request or instruct GPIF to buy the central bank's ETF holdings," he said. Kishida...

June 17, 2024
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14Jun

LGBTQ and finance

By Sanjukta Brahma, Konstantinos Gavriilidis, Vasileios Kallinterakis, Thanos Verousis & Mengyu Zhang Recent changes in workplace and corporate board diversity policies and a series of court rulings have signalled a fundamental change in the treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (henceforth LGBTQ) people in the corporate world. In this paper, we survey the burgeoning literature on the role of sexual orientation in finance. Studies show that there is a positive relationship between the adoption of LGBTQ-friendly policies and...

June 14, 2024
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14Jun

Legal & General resets strategy, focuses on pension risk transfer, private markets

Legal & General Group will bring together its investment management business and alternatives platform to create a single asset management division, aiming to almost double its private markets platform assets, and will "seize the significant" pension risk transfer opportunity under a new strategy. L&G announced a refreshed strategy and financial targets June 12, following “a rigorous review of the business,” a statement said. As part of the move, it will bring Legal & General Investment Management The move will create a single,...

June 14, 2024
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12Jun

Mercer inks deal to buy Cardano

Mercer agreed to acquire U.K. and Netherlands retirement specialist and outsourced CIO business Cardano. The deal for Mercer — part of Marsh McLennan — to acquire Cardano is set to close near the end of the year, a news release said. It is subject to regulatory approvals and terms of the deal were not disclosed. Cardano, which has $66 billion in assets under management, is an OCIO, investment advisory and liability-driven investing and derivatives solutions firm, working with both defined benefit and...

June 12, 2024
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