The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is appointing Maxime Aucoin as executive vice-president of depositors and total portfolio. In the new role, Aucoin, who’s currently responsible for portfolio construction, asset allocation and currency management, will also be responsible for economic and financial analysis, global strategy and depositor advisory services. With 10 years of […]
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, institutional investors are increasingly factoring geopolitical risks into portfolio construction, according to John Bai, senior vice-president and chief investment officer at NEI Investments, during a 2023 economic outlook seminar hosted by the Canadian Pension and Benefits Institute on Wednesday. “All of a sudden, geopolitical risks went from […]
While the vast majority (85 per cent) of institutional investors believe the economy is in a recession or will enter a recession next year, two-thirds (65 per cent) think stagflation is the bigger risk ahead, according to a survey by Natixis Investment Managers. The survey, which polled 500 institutional investors across the globe, found more than half […]
Just 0.9 per cent of 35 million U.S. defined contribution pension plan members ceased making contributions during the first quarter of 2022, according to a report by the Investment Company Institute. While this percentage was slightly higher than in the first quarter of 2021 (0.8 per cent), it was a substantial drop from 2020 (1.4 […]
As a nuclear power provider, Bruce Power’s culture emphasizes the importance of risk-averseness. This is reflected in the company’s efforts to secure the indexed benefits offered to its 6,500 defined benefit pension plan members. “We have many, many checks and balances in place — not just on the operational side, but also when it comes […]
Since last March, the coronavirus pandemic has derailed the best-laid plans of many organizations, including the Toronto Transit Commission. With so many white-collar employees working from home, and worries about public health, it’s no secret the TTC’s ridership and revenue have been hit hard. Between the first and last weeks in March 2020, for example, […]
The San Bernardino County Employees’ Retirement Association implemented a simple innovation 15 years ago that’s added nearly US$1 billion to the fund’s total value as of Aug. 31, 2020. That innovation is “informed rebalancing,” said Arun Muralidhar, adjunct professor of finance at George Washington University, when speaking at the Canadian Investment Review’s Investment Innovation Conference […]
Over the years, the York University pension plan has performed well by all objective measures and made major changes to its asset allocation. Speaking at the Canadian Investment Review’s Plan Sponsor Exchange conference in February, Guy Burry, chair of the university’s pension investment committee, credited these accomplishments to the committee’s encouragement of diverse thinking instead […]
While it’s easy for a plan sponsor to determine how an equity or fixed income manager is performing, it isn’t as straightforward to assess the performance of an outsourced chief investment officer. “There’s a lot of similarities in OCIO providers out there, but there’s also a lot of differences,” said Eric Menzer, global head of […]
Many pension plans use risk systems to test how different scenarios would affect their portfolios. Traditionally, risk models use thousands of scenarios. The likelihood that these scenarios will occur is weighted equally and generally reflects short-term asset characteristics. On the other hand, pension plans also use asset-liability models for long-term portfolio construction. This could result […]