Pension Pulse

Stephanie Landsman of CNBC reports, Mayflower Advisors' Larry Glazer: Don't expect FANG stocks to keep carrying the rally : Veteran fund manager Larry Glazer is worried too many investors are in the wrong trade. His concerns stem from the crucial role big technology stocks are playing in the record rally. If investors don't diversify away from some of the year's biggest winners now, Glazer believes they're going to feel a world of pain. "Ten names driving half of the return of the S&P 500 in the first seven months of the year. They want to hear that can continue because it's a neat and convenient story," the Mayflower Advisors managing partner told CNBC's "Futures Now" last week. "That divergence can't continue." Glazer, who has almost $3 billion in assets under management, referred to Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Netflix, Facebook, Alphabet, Mastercard, Visa, Adobe and Nvidia as some of the biggest names behind...

Benefits Canada reports, Ontario Teachers’ signs tobacco-free investment pledge : The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has signed an agreement promising to divest from the tobacco industry as part of a wider pledge supported by multiple global government and health organizations. “Given the reputational, social and commercial headwinds facing the tobacco industry today, we are no longer confident that it represents an attractive investment opportunity for a long-term investor,” said Barbara Zvan, chief risk and strategy officer at Ontario Teachers’, in a press release. “Signing this pledge reinforces and institutionalizes our conviction that tobacco is no longer a sensible investment for our fund.” The tobacco-free finance pledge encourages its signatories to commit to a tobacco-free policy within their investments. The aim is in line with the United Nations’ sustainable development goals and the World Health Organization’s framework convention on tobacco control. The pledge,...

Claire Stam of EURACTIV France reports, Pension fund chief: We are seeing a strong movement towards green financing : Investors increasingly have to take into account the legal risks associated with global warming and more and more of them are adopting a socially responsible approach, Phillippe Desfossé told EURACTIV France as Climate Week opens in New York. Phillippe Desfossé is the chief executive officer of the pension fund ERAFP, which manages the additional retirement pension for French civil servants. He is also vice chair of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC). Can you describe the organisation you are representing? ERAFP is a pension fund which manages the additional retirement pension for civil servants. It is a mandatory pension scheme, which is capital-based and was established to benefit the 4.5 million civil servants, whether they are civilian or military officials, or employed by local government, hospitals or the judiciary. Having been ...

Laurie Monsebraaten of The Star reports, Non-profit workers offered chance to join Ontario public sector pension plan : As many as one million Ontarians who work for registered charities and non-profit organizations will be eligible to join the provincial government pension plan under an agreement being announced Monday. The Ontario Nonprofit Network, which advocates on behalf of the province’s 58,000 charities and non-profits, is recommending OPTrust as the sector’s first defined-benefit pension provider. The new OPTrust Select plan will be available to every registered charity and non-profit in Ontario, whether it has one employee or hundreds, said the network’s executive director, Cathy Taylor . Everything from non-profit arts and culture organizations, daycares, sports and recreation facilities to health and social service providers will be invited to participate . “Hardly anyone in the sector has benefits or pensions, and our research has found this has become a sign...

Dawn Lim and Heather Gillers of the Wall Street Journal reports, Biggest U.S. Public Pension Looks to China for New Investment Chief : An official with China’s foreign-exchange regulator is the lead candidate to become next investment chief of the largest U.S. public pension fund, according to people familiar with the matter. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System has offered the job to Ben Meng, deputy CIO of China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange, one of these people said. The agency is in charge of China’s more than $3 trillion in foreign reserves. Mr. Meng previously worked for the California pension fund earlier this decade . Mr. Meng hadn’t signed an offer letter as of Wednesday morning, this person said. Mr. Meng contacted The Journal late Wednesday to say he is a U.S. citizen working at the Chinese agency as a foreign contractor. He said he had no comment on the hiring process . The selection of Mr. Meng would place a familiar face in charge of ...

Michael Hudson wrote a omment earlier this week, The Lehman 10th Anniversary spin as a Teachable Moment : Wall Street did not let the Lehman Brothers crisis go to waste. The banks that have paid the largest fines for financial fraud are now much bigger and more profitable. The victims of their junk mortgage loans are poorer, and the economy is facing debt deflation. Was it worth it? What was not saved was the economy. Today’s financial malaise for pension funds, state and local budgets and underemployment is largely a result of the 2008 bailout, not the crash. What was saved was not only the banks – or more to the point, as Sheila Bair pointed out, their bondholders – but the financial overhead that continues to burden today’s economy . Also saved was the idea that the economy needs to keep the financial sector solvent by an exponential growth of new debt – and, when that does not suffice, by government purchase of stocks and bonds to support the balance sheets of the wealth...