July 2021
15Jul

BlackRock Closes In on the Once Unthinkable, $10 Trillion in Assets

BlackRock Inc.’s second-quarter profit rose 14% on new money coming into the giant asset manager, a sign that investors are becoming more confident about an economic recovery. Read also He runs the worst-funded public pension in the country. Here’s his ‘good news’ story The company posted a quarterly profit of $1.378 billion or $8.92 a share, up from $1.214 billion or $7.85 a share a year earlier. Its revenue grew 32% to $4.82 billion. Read also Transferring A Business Following Insolvency In...

July 15, 2021
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14Jul

He runs the worst-funded public pension in the country. Here’s his ‘good news’ story

It’s a safe bet that many people, seeing their work described in print as “among the worst in the country,” might cringe and try to avoid the media. But David Eager has spent the past five years running the Kentucky Public Pension Authority, with an eye to turning the system around. A big part of his work has been increasing transparency and educating people about the nitty-gritty of public pensions, how Kentucky got into the mess it’s in, and how...

July 14, 2021
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08Jul

ESG: Fad or Future?

The trend over recent years is impossible to ignore: ESG investing has been gathering steam. There have been record flows into ESG investments, companies in ESG sectors have registered impressive valuations and thousands of asset managers and owners have signed on to the UN Principles For Responsible Investment (PRI). Environmental sectors are outstripping growth in the overall economy and ESG-focused funds are outperforming their counterparts. There is a convergence of driving factors that already point to this being more...

July 8, 2021
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06Jul

Canadian pensions raise stakes in Apac real estate

Asia Pacific now accounts for about a quarter of outbound allocations by Canadian investors, up from just 10% between 2015 and 2019, according to a June 21 report by Real Capital Analytics (RCA) – and much of that outflow has been captured in regional real estate. This is part of an overall trend of Canadian investors diverting their attention outside North America, with around half of outbound allocations leaving the continent since 2020. “Five of the top eight Canadian investors in...

July 6, 2021
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05Jul

Australia’s Biggest Pension Fund Posts Record Annual Return

Australia’s biggest pension fund notched a record return in fiscal 2021 as strong market performance in the wake of the pandemic lifted assets under management. Read also US. Do You Get Your Money’s Worth From Buying An Annuity? AustralianSuper Pty.’s default investment option returned 20.43% in the 12 months ended June 30, the 12th consecutive year of gains, the fund said in a statement Monday. The Melbourne-based fund’s assets under management rose to A$225 billion ($169 billion) from A$180 billion a...

July 5, 2021
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02Jul

Public Pension Portfolios in a World of Low Rates and Low Risk Premiums

By He Ren, Sarah Siwinski, Calvin Yu, Andrew Ang Over the 2010s, the assets of public pension plans generated significantly higher returns than their assumed, or actuarial, rates of return. In a sample of 69 US public plans with a total of $2.1 trillion of assets, the return outperformance of assets over the assumed returns was over 200 basis points for the 10 years ending June 30, 2009. The outperformance is driven by their asset allocations being mostly exposed to...

July 2, 2021
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June 2021
28Jun

US. Pension risk transfer premiums ease in May

Pension risk transfer premiums fell slightly in May, a Milliman study said. The estimated buyout cost as a percentage of accounting liabilities (accumulated benefit obligation) was 102% as of May 31, down from 102.4% at the end of April. The cost has fluctuated between 101.8% and 102.7% since the beginning of 2021. "As expected, first quarter 2021 pension risk activity was down, but historically each progressing quarter sees an increase in activity," said Mary Leong, Milliman consulting actuary and the study's co-author,...

June 28, 2021
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24Jun

Kuwait’s $134 Billion Pension Fund Has Record Gain in Turnaround

Kuwait’s Public Institution for Social Security had its best ever annual performance, emerging as a new regional investment powerhouse despite political deadlock in the country. The $134 billion pension fund, which owns a quarter of U.S. private equity firm Stone Point Capital LLC, recorded 20.9% growth in assets in the year ended March 31, according to a statement on Wednesday. A new management team was brought into the fund in 2017 to transform the state-owned institution after its former head was...

June 24, 2021
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23Jun

Canada. New CPPIB Head Graham Says Inflation Will Stay Muted in Long Run

Strong demand, particularly from the U.S. consumer, may fuel higher inflation in the short term, but there is little risk of runaway price growth, according to the head of Canada’s $403 billion national pension fund. “It’s going to be really interesting over the next few months. We have a really high savings rate in the U.S., high savings rate in Canada, and really a lot of pent-up demand,” John Graham, chief executive officer of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, said...

June 23, 2021
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22Jun

Pension Funds and Financial Repression

By Richard Mark Davis, Fiona Stewart, Peter Knaack Pension funds in some economies are used as a captive audience to channel capital at below market rates to government. This policy is only one tool in the financial repression toolkit, but it is receiving increased attention as governments around the world struggle to increase fiscal space and reduce their sovereign debt burden as they rebuild their economies after the pandemic. First, this paper provides an analysis of financial repression using pension funds...

June 22, 2021
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