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Pension Investment Best Practices

Conference held in Toronto on December 11, 12 & 13, 2000
Chairs: Wendy Brodkin, Goodman & Company; Clive Morgan, York Hedge Fund Strategies, Inc.; Marcia Lewis Brown, TD Asset Management Inc.; and Patrick K. Walsh, SEI Investments Canada

Book: over 350 pages of original material
CD-ROM: approximately 10 hours of video presentations, plus book content

To purchase, please contact Federated Press.

Investment selection

CASE STUDY: Noranda's approach to managing fixed income investments
Michelle D. Peshko, Manager, Pension Investments, Noranda Inc.

  • Noranda's plan and investment beliefs
  • Developing the new mandate: active vs. passive
  • Adding corporates in foreign and domestic markets
  • High-yield approach to the fixed income portfolio
  • The Canadian fixed income market in a global arena
  • Implications for portfolio and plan risks

Video: 40 minutes • Overheads

Using alternative investments
Margaret Franklin, Managing Director, Institutional Sales & Marketing, Altamira Investment Services Inc.

  • Identifying alternative investment opportunities
  • Assessing appropriate alternative assets for your plan
  • Benefits of alternative assets over traditional assets
  • Choosing a manager for alternative asset classes
  • Alternative assets for the broad investor
  • Risk considerations for fund managers

Video: 33 minutes

Managing international investments
Lance Speck, Portfolio Manager and Director, Laketon Investment Management Ltd.; and Len Racioppo, President and COO, Jarislowsky Fraser Limited

  • Trends in foreign content in worldwide pension funds
  • Reasons for investing internationally
  • Challenges for Canadian money managers
  • Appropriate benchmark for measuring foreign equities
  • The multiple vs. single fund manager approach
  • Sector vs. country correlation

Video: 30 minutes • Speaker's paper: 2003 words • Overheads

Pension investment trends
Wendy Brodkin, President, Goodman & Company

  • The traditional approach to pension investments
  • Ten fundamental market changes
  • Obstacles to paradigm shifts
  • Ten big investment trends: timing and impact
  • Five practical tips for dealing with the changes

Video: 43 minutes • Overheads

Creating a portfolio blueprint

CASE STUDY: Setting up investment policies for EDC's new pension plan
Brian Laffin, Portfolio Manager, Export Development Corporation

  • Setting manager mandates and selection criteria
  • Implementation of pension investment function
  • Hierarchy of investment portfolio decisions
  • Asset allocation: qualitative vs. quantitative factors
  • The investment policy document: statutory requirements
  • Monitoring manager performance against objectives

Video: 42 minutes • Overheads

CASE STUDY: Merging pension funds at Abitibi
Larry Johnson, Director of Pension Investments, Abitibi-Consolidated Inc.

  • The principle and challenges of amalgamating
  • Keeping fund governance on track
  • Investment beliefs: coming to a consensus
  • Selecting investment managers: criteria used
  • Setting the asset mix
  • Narrowing down the manager group: objectives

Video: 47 minutes • Overheads

Using technology for portfolio risk management
Michel Malo, Chief Investment Officer, State Street Global Advisors

  • Reasons for using technology to assess risk
  • Tracking error forecasting and comparison
  • Multi-factor vs. fundamental factor models
  • Quantitative approach to risk management tools
  • Performance attribution and factor testing
  • Factoring special causes into models

Video: 48 minutes • Overheads

Getting asset allocation right
Clive Morgan, York Hedge Fund Strategies, Inc.

  • Setting investment objectives
  • Why do an asset liability study?
  • Setting assumptions and what risks are we protecting
  • Uses and abuses of asset/liability modelling
  • Non-traditional investments: hedge funds
  • Defined contribution plans vs. defined benefit plans

Video: 27 minutes • Overheads

Dealing with change

CASE STUDY: Investment policy review for York University Pension Fund
Leona Fields, Manager, Pension Fund, York University

  • The governing structure of the York plan
  • What makes York's plan unique?
  • Investment beliefs and objectives
  • Rebalancing manager structure and asset mix
  • Current issues and effect on investment policy
  • Future initiatives in pension governance

Video: 41 minutes • Overheads

PANEL: Effective control mechanisms for your pension investments
Lisa Rutherford, Compensation and Benefits Manager, NCR Canada Ltd.; and Colin Ripsman, William M. Mercer Limited (Panel Chair)

  • What the pension charter should contain
  • Applicable legislation and case law
  • General guidelines for the pension charter
  • The manager monitoring process
  • Investment manager governance and compliance
  • Considerations in firing investment managers

Video: 49 minutes • Overheads

Transition management
Marcia Lewis Brown, Managing Director, TD Asset Management Inc.

  • Firing/replacing a money manager
  • The process for changing managers
  • The transition manager's role
  • Minimizing the costs of changing managers
  • Transition trading strategies
  • Measuring the actual costs of transition

Video: 40 minutes • Overheads

Managing your funds

Understanding manager style in a changing market
William W. Ashby, President, Beutel, Goodman & Company Ltd.

  • Why investment style is important
  • Value vs. growth managers: performance and style
  • Identifying manager red flags
  • U.S. equities: investment style indices
  • TSE 300 sector weights and returns

Video: 37 minutes • Overheads

PANEL: Evaluating and selecting managers
Robin Pond, Morneau Sobeco (Panel Chair); John D. Cannell, Treasurer, Toronto Transit Commission Pension Fund Society; and John A. Poos, General Manager, Law & Pension Investments, Stelco Inc.

  • Pre-selection process issues: investment beliefs and goals
  • Choosing between active and passive management
  • Establishing a selection criteria
  • Manager selection criteria in the interview stage
  • Ongoing evaluation of the manager's performance
  • Reasons for terminating the money manager

Video: 44 minutes

CASE STUDY: Managing pension funds in light of an impending split
Brian A. P. FitzGerald, Chair and CEO, Ontario Electricity Pension Services Corporation

  • Overview of the impending pension fund split
  • Key investment governance issues
  • The pension committee's role and reporting requirements
  • Communications during the transition period
  • Managing in the final days of the transfer date
  • Union/employer negotiations in asset wind-up

Video: 20 minutes • Overheads

The new paradigm of pension management
Patrick K. Walsh, President, SEI Investments Canada

  • Changing ownership and business practices
  • Impact of technology and financial function outsourcing
  • Changes in markets and trading
  • Institutional investing and cost management changes
  • Trends in asset management/investment programs
  • Objectives of pension management

Video: 52 minutes • Overheads

 

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