Three-quarters (76 per cent) of U.S. defined contribution pension plan sponsors say their plan offers automatic enrolment, according to a new survey by investment consulting firm Callan. The survey, which polled roughly 100 DC plan sponsors, found the vast majority used auto-enrolment for new hires, while far fewer offered this feature for current employees. Half […]
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is reporting a total fund net return of 1.2 per cent for the six-month period ended June 30, 2022. The 12-month total fund net return was 8.3 per cent while net assets grew to $242.5 billion, according to a press release, which noted the five- and 10-year annualized total fund […]
While there’s broad interest in environmental, social and governance factors, the majority of U.S. defined contribution pension plan consultants said their plan sponsor clients are looking for further clarity on the Department of Labor’s proposed guidelines before incorporating ESG into their investment options, according to a new survey by the Schaus Group and T. Rowe […]
The percentage of institutional investor assets that are actively managed has dipped by eight per cent since 2019, according to a new study by institutional investment consulting firm Callan. The study, based on data collected from 160 U.S. institutional investors with US$598 billion in assets under management, found 62 per cent of assets held by […]
The majority (64 per cent) of consulting and advisory firms said their plan sponsor clients are looking to improve financial wellness programs, according to a new defined contribution plan consulting survey by PIMCO. The same percentage (64 per cent) of respondents said plan sponsors want to improve participant retirement education and evaluate investment fees. The […]
Despite this year’s extreme volatility, the past ten years have been an extraordinary time to be an equity investor. This can be seen by looking at the so-called equity risk premium, which is simply the difference between returns on global stock markets and risk-free assets, such as U.S. dollar bank deposits. Over the very long […]
The vast majority of investors (82 per cent) are satisfied with how their portfolios performed in the first half of 2020, despite some weak results in strategies such as emerging market debt and smart beta, according to a new study of 368 investors with combined assets of approximately US$11 trillion. Following the quickest equity market […]
The vast majority (81 per cent) of global pension plan sponsors said they have allocations to some kind of climate change-related funds, according to a new survey from CREATE-Research. Specifically, when it comes to passive funds, 44 per cent of respondents said they allocated at least some of the passive segment of their portfolio to a climate change-related […]
Due to market volatility caused by the coronavirus, pension plans may be finding themselves offside their investment policies as their assets have drifted. Typically, pension funds have a strategic asset allocation policy, which specifies bands within each asset class that investments can move between, says Arun Muralidhar, an adjunct professor of finance at George Washington […]
The majority of Canadian institutional investors say they don’t think shareholders should take precedent over all other stakeholders, including employees, at a given company, according to a new survey by Daniel J. Edelman Holdings Inc. It found 91 per cent of respondents said maximizing profits in the interest of shareholders can no longer be the primary purpose of […]