The 3 Big Challenges Facing Institutional Investors
The confluence of issues currently facing superannuation funds is driving them to consider new approaches to portfolio management, especially within equities. A conversation that was historically solely focused on alpha generation has expanded to cover additional objectives.
Whilst some of these additional objectives have originated from underlying investors, and others have been introduced by regulators, all of which bring accelerated demand and pressure to create solutions that can effectively manage active risk, provide scalable excess returns and integrate sustainability.
The introduction of Your Future, Your Super (YFYS) Reforms in 2021 has significantly affected key aspects of how superannuation funds manage and design their investment portfolios.
This is all happening against an economic backdrop of rising inflation and interest rates – a financial market scenario that we haven’t seen for decades.
Multiple Objectives, Single Portfolio
In this webinar co-hosted with Northern Trust Asset Management, we will provide an overview of the different objectives that Australian investors are currently facing and how they can achieve these multiple objectives, all while navigating a volatile and unprecedented macro environment.
The multi-objective challenges include:
- Cyclicality: The YFYS performance test
- Capacity: Balancing scalability with capacity
- Sustainability: Integration of sustainability
- Volatility: Managing opportunities with uncertainty
Speaker
Scott Bennett is head of quantitative investment solutions, Australasia where he is responsible for the development and support of Northern Trust’s quantitative solutions within the Asia Pacific region. Scott drives thought leadership and works with large institutional clients on customized quantitative solutions.
Scott has more than 20 years of investment experience. Prior to joining Northern Trust Asset Management, Scott led the global quantitative research effort at Russell Investments, where he was responsible for more than $45 billion in assets under management across single factor, multi-factor, factor timing, environmental social and governance (ESG), and portfolio completion strategies. He was previously responsible for managing more than $7 billion in Australian equity portfolios that included after-tax, smart beta and multi-manager strategies. Scott has been published in several academic journals covering ESG, risk measurement and portfolio construction. In 2010, Scott won the JASSA prize for “best paper” for his work on active share across Australian equity managers.
Scott earned his bachelor’s degree in business (economics and finance) with distinction from RMIT University and a master’s in finance (applied finance) from the University of New South Wales (UNSW).
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