August 2023
25Aug

Investment Option Switching Behaviour and Impact for Pension Fund Members Around the COVID Pandemic

By Adam Butt, Gaurav Khemba, William Lim, Geoff Warren & Shang Wu We study the switching of investment options by defined contribution pension fund members, using a unique dataset provided by a large Australian superannuation fund and spanning the market volatility associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that both the magnitude and direction of switching activity is primarily related to market conditions, but is moderated by member characteristics. Switching activity appears reactive to market movements, with a spike in...

August 25, 2023
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25Aug

Unbundling Climate Change Risk from ESG

By Jeffrey N. Gordon  The divergence between the United States and the European Union over ESG disclosure and compliance policy for asset managers and companies is a striking feature of the corporate governance landscape. This divergence derives at least in part from differences in core features of the relevant political economy. In particular, retirement security in the US is significantly tied to stock market values; this is not so in Europe. The US is a petro-state, the world’s largest producer...

August 25, 2023
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March 2023
17Mar

Pension Funds and Sustainable Investment: Challenges and Opportunities

By P. Brett Hammond, Raimond Maurer, and Olivia S. Mitchell Pension Funds and Sustainable Investment: Challenges and Opportunities responds to rising global interest in environmental, social, governance (ESG), and impact investing to generate positive impact while generating financial return. Contributors explore the pros and cons of pension ESG investments and discuss case studies from the US and around the world. The findings will interest researchers, management/advisory firms, financial advisors, asset owners, and policymakers Read book here

March 17, 2023
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03Mar

The Liability Trap: Why the ALEC Anti-ESG Bills Create a Legal Quagmire for Fiduciaries Connected with Public Pensions

By David J. Berger, David H. Webber & Beth Young Two proposed bills barring public pensions from considering environmental, social, and governance investment criteria create massive legal risk for any pension fiduciary or service provider. The American Legislative Exchange Council “boycott bill” and the “fiduciary duty” bill, if adopted, would impose irreconcilable legal requirements on such fiduciaries, and subject them to compliance with arbitrary and unworkable legal demands. The main legal problems the bills create fall into four categories: (1) the unworkable...

March 3, 2023
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February 2023
17Feb

EIOPA, Unit-linked Insurance and Polish Product Intervention: A Silent Regulatory Revolution?

By Lucie Škapová When the Polish financial market supervisor, Komisja Nadzoru Finansowego (KNF), notified its intention to prohibit certain unit-linked insurance products marketed in Poland, it created an unprecedented situation: for the first time, a financial market supervisor decided to trigger Chapter III of the PRIIPs Regulation and adopt product intervention measures in the insurance sector. If adopted, these measures would regulate not only the investment strategies of unit-linked insurance products offered in Poland but also their cost structure and...

February 17, 2023
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08Feb

New Evidence on the Demand for Advice within Retirement Plans

By Jonathan Reuter & David P. Richardson We study demand for advice by retirement plan participants using administrative records from defined contribution retirement plans offered by 23 institutions where TIAA is the sole recordkeeper. We distinguish advice on asset allocation from advice on retirement income levels, and between participants who are and are not eligible for TIAA’s wealth management services. We find that advice seeking increases with age, account balance and annual contribution level, and is highest among those eligible for wealth management services. However, we...

February 8, 2023
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01Feb

Enhancing Investors’ Trust

By CFA Institute Investor Trust Study Investors must have confidence in the financial system overall, and trust is especially important for investment management, since client outcomes manifest only over a future horizon. Industry leaders must understand the drivers of investor trust so they can deliver the most value. In the 2022 CFA Institute Investor Trust Study, the fifth in our biennial series, we found that trust levels in financial services among retail and institutional investors have increased significantly since 2020....

February 1, 2023
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January 2023
18Jan

Investment Risk Minimization and Optimization of Future Pension Plans

By Peter Vodička Thesis is a collection of three papers with several contributions to the optimisation of future pension plans for the long-term savers while minimising their investment risk. Since pillar aim is to improve the transparency of the pension funding, we develop investment strategies for individual savers which are easy to understand whilst at the same time performing optimally, or near optimally. Furthermore, all investment prospects are communicated in real terms. Principal investment strategy introduced in the thesis is called...

January 18, 2023
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13Jan

Long-Term Real Dynamic Investment Planning

By Russell J. Gerrard, Munir Hiabu, Jens Perch Nielsen & Peter Vodička When long-term savers plan for retirement they need to know their investment prospects in terms of real income (Merton, 2014). While inflation has traditionally been considered as a complication in financial analysis and financial practise, we obtain enhanced predictability and model fit if the real returns are targeted in conjunction with earnings-by-price minus inflation as predictor. For this latter case, we propose an investment strategy of updating the...

January 13, 2023
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December 2022
08Dec

Global Public Investor 2022

By OMFIF Most central bank reserves managers are resigned to a period of higher inflation and lower returns, according to a report published today by OMFIF. More than 75% of the central banks surveyed for the 2022 edition of Global Public Investor believe inflation will be sustainably higher or more volatile for a prolonged period. Just 20% of reserves managers think inflation will be transitory. At the same time, central banks believe the new macroeconomic environment will cause their portfolios to suffer....

December 8, 2022
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