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 […]
The world’s 500 largest asset managers’ total discretionary assets under management increased by 10.2 per cent in 2021, reaching US$131.7 trillion, according to a new report by WTW’s Thinking Ahead Institute. It found North American AUM accounted for more than half (59.9 per cent) of AUM in the top 500 managers, garnering $78.9 trillion by […]
Institutional investors own more than 70 per cent of U.S. public firms and passive funds have seen significant growth, from five per cent of mutual funds in 2000 to more than 30 per cent today, but the jury is still out on what this means for corporate governance. Using a theoretical framework, a new paper […]
The traditional worry about the rise of passive investment is that it will result in less informed asset pricing in the market overall. A new paper digs into how this rise of passive or quantitative investing impacts the efficiency with which firms are run. Less active management means fewer investors are seeking out mispriced securities […]
The traditional worry about the rise of passive investments is that the trend makes for less informed pricing of assets in the market overall. Less active management means fewer investors are seeking out mispriced securities and bringing them better in line with reality. This can cause negative real-world effects, the most simplistic of which is […]
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 […]
It’s hard to believe that just recently, people weren’t cutting their own hair or binge-watching Tiger King. At the beginning of the year, defined benefit funding levels were at record highs and many pension plan sponsors were considering reducing their pension risk. Fast forward a few months and the novel coronavirus has turned the world […]
In the 1970s and early 1980s, defined benefit plan members clamoured for the portability provided by converting their plans to defined contribution arrangements. But that enthusiasm has waned over the years, with the majority of capital accumulation plan members simply not up for the challenge of managing their own investments. For plan sponsors, concerns also include […]
Active investors should combine their own analytical work with the use of machine learning to get a leg up on their passive peers, according to a new paper. Fiona Frick, Unigestion’s chief executive officer, argued that, in an environment where institutional investors are using the same strategies and no one is left with an edge, active managers should use “collaborative […]
Passive investing is immensely popular, with assets in passive funds having cleared US$13 trillion, globally. But can active investors take advantage of the new landscape this is creating? Regardless of where an investor stands on the active versus passive debate, this new reality has shifted the overall market environment, revealing certain opportunities, said Ivan Cajic, […]