Analysis

Not-for-profit (NFP) investors are keen to jump into the private markets, but are being held back by the complexities of manager selection and concerns around cost.

“There was either delusion in that respect or they didn’t want to look or they didn’t understand. I think it caught most people by surprise. Anybody who says they saw it coming – that’s very rare.”

New research shows broad-faced hedge fund managers tend to take more risks but deliver less alpha for the effort compared to those with more elongated features.

The world’s most transparent sovereign wealth and pension funds have returned “disappointing results” as the drop in bond and stock prices finally kneecapped a decade of growth.

Until now, Japanese funds have largely been bond and cash investors. As they expand into real assets, Frontier wants to own that consulting niche.

Not-for-profit industry body Focusing Capital on the Long Term (FCLTGlobal), has refreshed its mandate guidelines for institutional investors.

Australia’s super funds have been leaders in adopting private markets investing, but they’ve still got a long way to go. Overcoming the obsession with liquidity will be one hurdle, says the boss of $900 billion private markets manager Hamilton Lane.

Performance concerns for sustainable investing have risen to the fore as the Your Future Your Super (YFYS) test shortens investment horizons. The wider return outlook is more challenged too.

The end of supportive monetary policy is bringing wild market volatility with it, and the old impulse to “buy the dip” will no longer be rewarded.

Institutional funds and their managers tend not to talk about tactical bets, at least not in public. It’s a long-term game after all. But there are times when short-term opportunities can also match long-term strategies. Take China, for instance.

While the publishing of retirement income strategies is a big step forward into super’s new frontier, many of those strategies are based on a “very unsafe foundation.”

While passive investment strategies are now used to manage the majority of equities, the absence of active managers would only create a “mindless boom and bust.”