Analysis

Plenty of big institutional investors are finding that the total portfolio approach eats strategic asset allocation for breakfast. But as their organisations become more and more complex, shifting towards a new way of investing is getting harder.

Sovereign wealth funds are changing their asset mix and have executed a stunning U-turn on artificial intelligence investments, according to the latest Invesco annual survey of the sector.

For those looking to chase the growth tail and tip into what are a small clutch of highly priced equities, Pzena has a sobering history lesson. Meanwhile, the bounce-back for value portfolios could be “quite extreme”.

Mergers can consume the day-to-day life of a fund for years. But the investment decisions made during the process determine whether the new fund – and its membership – will thrive from day one.

The $74 billion New Zealand Super has shot the lights out with a chunky one year return and is now looking to “scale and optimise” its organisation as it eyes a projected doubling in size over the next decade.

Passive investing may have skewed the numbers but the index-hugging wall of money can’t break the maths of markets, a new GMO paper argues.

Offshore offices might get super funds “closer to the action”, but they can come at a literal cost – and not every fund is prepared to pay it.

The NZ Superannuation Fund has notched up back-to-back results as the best-performing and one of the most-sustainable sovereign investment vehicles in the world in a new review of the sector.

Super funds love to crow about their performance, but the headlines about ART’s double-digit return obscure what will be a massive shift for its millions-strong member base.

Rising geopolitical tensions mean that diversification’s ‘free lunch’ must come from a new menu if investors want to prosper in a brave new world, the Future Fund says.

A recovery in the UK’s equity market has almost always been predicated on valuation grounds, according to Ruffer. But this time the recovering domestic economy and a high exposure to commodities and financials might act as additional catalysts.

Super funds have been heading down the path to massive size for more than two decades. They’ve arrived when the transition to a net-zero economy needs that size the most.