Analysis

60/40 isn’t dead, but that doesn’t mean that investors shouldn’t be searching high and low for diversification. Despite what Harry Markowitz once said, it won’t necessarily come cheap.

Private markets were the main driver of superannuation fund performance for 2022, according to Frontier, but only a few of this year’s top 10 funds feature in the league tables over the last decade. And the YFYS test is still creating anomalous outcomes.

A BlackRock survey of institutional investors has found the growing appetite for private markets is dampened only by liquidity concerns. Meanwhile, its strategists warn that the efficacy of the classic 60/40 portfolio is waning.

The meltdown of Silicon Valley Bank is “an early step” towards a more rational market environment, according to Howard Marks, but new problems might arise from bank exposure to commercial real estate.

Australian super funds can probably learn a bit about retirement from the tiny, adaptable Cook Islands National Superannuation Fund. And a host of Pacific funds are also working on their own collaborative approach to investing in the region.

The passive versus active debate rages on, but it turns out that active management is worth something after all: 16 basis points per year, to be exact.

The NZ Superannuation Fund (NZS) moved into trend-following and struck a real asset deal with a Dutch pension giant among a dozen new external mandates inked last year.

Neurodiversity is poorly understood in the world of finance. Women in Super and neurodiversity advocates are pushing for that to change.

Big and small funds alike can do well for their members, and what’s more important than size is how they use it. But the risks of having a highly concentrated industry have been “underplayed”, according to ANU academic Geoff Warren.

Australian institutional investors are plotting increased allocations to alternatives and rethinking geopolitical risk, according to Nuveen.

Investors holding out for a monetary policy hero will have to keep holding out. And as regulators put out spot fires in the global banking system, they’ll need to reckon with the new behemoths they’ve made.

Garry Weaven’s collected writings offer a fascinating history of both the industry fund movement and one of its key architects – and a warning not to stick with the pack.