Incisive Views from Professionals
By Jason Hopper and Ken Johnson of A.M. Best With interest rates remaining persistently low, NAIC Schedule BA assets, which include alternative investment securities, have generally provided insurers with the potential for higher risk-adjusted returns to help mitigate the decline in higher portfolio book yields. Without a meaningful increase in interest rates, insurers have limited choices for investing new dollars from […] Read more »
By Diane Harrison, principal of Panegyric Marketing Charles Dickens’ Bleak House spins a tale of mystery, intrigue, family dynamics, and irony in the Victorian age that had readers gripped by its indictment of the English court system. While the novel is packed with intricate plot twists and turns, the main story line centers on the contested will case of […] Read more »
By Alastair Sewell, Manuel Arrive, and Brian Knudsen of Fitch Ratings Summary Strong Growth, Low Base: Fitch Ratings estimates that open-ended Europe-domiciled loan funds have had strong average annual growth of 50%-60% over the last five years. However, this comes from a low base: Fitch estimates total assets of just EUR40bn across all European open-ended funds at end-June 2016, with […] Read more »
NOTE: * As of 30 June 2014 ** As of 31 December 2014 *** As of 31 August 2014 **** As of 31 March 2015, endowment only ***** E&F value as of 30 June 2014; allocations as of 30 June 2015 ****** As of 31 May 2014 (1) Assets in absolute return; does not include […] Read more »
By Simon Kerr, Publisher of Hedge Fund Insight The Florida State Board of Administration runs the $141bn Florida Retirement System Pension Plan through an Investment Advisory Council. As a public body it’s papers are available online, and an exploration of the material gives an insight into the way large pension plans, and State sponsored plans in […] Read more »
By Steve Chirico of AM Best Reinsurers, for the most part, have been struggling to optimize one side of the balance sheet and its ability to contribute to the return measures and competitiveness of the organization. This is evident by declining investment yields that are due in part to artificially depressed yields on fixed income […] Read more »
By Stan Altshuller, Co-founder and Chief Research Officer, and Brett Turenchalk, Analyst – Client Analytics of Novus Partners Inc. Maverick Capital The definition of entrenched, firmly established and unlikely to change, only partially applies to Maverick Capital. It is firmly established in the hedge fund industry as one of the oldest tiger cubs and commands […] Read more »
By Evan Judd, Director of Bell Rock Group Side pockets are a useful portfolio management tool that have been around for a number of years, and offer measurable benefits to both investors and hedge fund managers. However, there are also some notable drawbacks as well as possibility for abuse that demand recognition before considering its […] Read more »
By Shinya Deguchi, a Managing Partner at Star Magnolia Capital* We strongly believe in the fundamental-driven, long-term, concentrated, and active investment approach for both private and public strategies. This includes our buyout, venture capital, public long-only equity and absolute return strategies. As pointed out 46 years ago by journalist Carol J. Loomis (known for […] Read more »
NEPC, LLC, one of the industry’s largest independent, full-service investment consulting firms to endowments and foundations, recently published the results of its Q2 2016 NEPC Endowment and Foundation Poll, a measure of endowment and foundation confidence and sentiment related to the economy, investing and market performance. The Q2 Poll included a special focus on how […] Read more »