A TRUSTEE’S GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE  INVESTMENTS

 

Part 1: Alpha waves
The learning curve for alternative investments is a steep one. This plain-language guide is meant to help pension trustees educate themselves about the alternative world. Read more…

  Part 2: The wheat from the chaff
For many years during the 1990s it was conventional wisdom for plan sponsors, big and small, to follow a certain pattern for investing. Generally, trustees took a traditional approach whereby 60% of investments went into stocks and 40% went into bonds. But the times are changing for pension plans and they are increasingly looking to separate skilled managers from the beta herd as they look to maximize their investment portfolios and decrease liability. Read more…
 

Part 3: Pitfalls of hedge fund investing
“Manage the risk and the returns will come,” is an oftcited adage in the world of alternative investments. The problem in alternative investments, however, is they are at the cutting edge of risk. It is perhaps in the nature of the beast, but it seems that for every new source of return hedge funds discover, they seem to turn up a new risk. Read more…

 

Part 4: Bridging the gap
The global infrastructure investment market is at an intriguing stage for institutional investors. Investors all over the world are increasingly becoming attracted to the stable, yield-dominated returns that this long-term investment can provide. Read more…

 

Part 5: The inner workings of private equity
Private equity is attracting its share of headlines. Although the focus tends to be on the multi-billion dollar buyout funds doing multi-billon deals, the reality is that private equity is going through a period of unprecedented growth. While the numbers aren’t final, it looks as though a record US$275 billion will have been raised in private equity in 2005, with the rate of capital-raising accelerating into 2006. In the first quarter of 2006, 110 funds closed, raising an additional US$80 billion. Read more…

Part 6: Building on real estate
Pension funds have had a rocky relationship with real estate. In the early 1990s, Canadian pension plans had, on average, almost 7% of their assets invested in real estate. But by the end of 2005, this percentage had fallen to less than 4%. In truth, for most pension plans the figure is much lower—large plans have much higher weightings, such as the 13% of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan that is invested in real estate, so medium and smaller pension funds have little or no real estate exposure anymore. Read more…


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