Predicting the future is easy. In the year 1900 a group of experts across a range of fields described what they believed life would be like in the year 2000. The rise of women in the workplace, space travel and machines playing a greater role in our lives have proved to be accurate predictions. However, even experts cannot always be right. One of their more ambitious forecasts was that by now we would all be living in perfect health. 
Indeed, diseases that were around at the time of the survey, such as scarlet fever, tuberculosis, typhus and typhoid, are now rarities in the developed world, bu ..read more

FIND OUT MORE The post BlackRock – Transition Center of Expertise: Renewable Power appeared first on portfolio institutional ..read more

You took up this role in November. How have the first few months been?
 It’s been great. It has been a learning curve as I’m new to the local government pension scheme (LGPS) environment. Everyone has been helpful. And everyone is passionate about the objectives we have in terms of running the LGPS for the members and employers.
 Even though I didn’t know the LGPS, I have knowledge of pensions in general, whether it is governance, asset classes or asset managers. That has helped me to get up to speed relatively quickly. Bruce Miller, the previous chief investment officer, stayed on until Janua ..read more

In the grand theatre of global finance, there exists a crucial but often overlooked ensemble cast: the asset owners. These institutions, charged with stewarding vast sums of capital on behalf of beneficiaries, play a pivotal role in shaping our economic landscape. Yet, in the UK, their numbers are dwindling and their influence is on the wane – an unsettling trend that demands our attention.  What exactly is an asset owner? Think of them as guardians of collective wealth, operating as a principal player in a fiduciary capacity to deliver value to their beneficiaries. They possess a societa ..read more

Ethnic diversity is increasingly becoming an important part of UK fund managers winning business, a think tank claims. Research by Reboot, a working group of senior financial services professionals, reveals that more than one in five (21%) fund managers now place a business focus on building a more ethnic diverse team. Furthermore, most (53.3%) of Reboot’s institutional investor panel considered the ethnic breakdown of a company when selecting a fund manager as ‘quite important’ while around 60% are committed to encouraging fund managers to build a more diverse team.  And 40% of UK-based ..read more

It was an eye-roll moment for some during Jeremy Hunt’s Mansion House speech last summer when he outlined his grand vision to get UK pension funds investing in unlisted companies to try and boost Britain’s economic growth. The indifference was not down to a lack of appreciation of his drive to get defined contribution (DC) funds investing a proportion of their assets in infrastructure, as well as startups and green technology. It was because they had been here before. Hunt is not the first chancellor to try and persuade large investors to finance the upkeep of the country’s much-needed infrast ..read more

In 2023 the world’s oceans absorbed record levels of heat and broke the record for average surface temperature.
 Our oceans are under immense pressure. Rising greenhouse gases are warming the seas, disrupting delicate ecosystems vital for human survival. Humans are reliant on ocean ecosystems for everything from food and oxygen to natural storm defences and ocean-related industries. The OECD predicts that 40 million people will be employed in ocean-related industries by 2030. This ‘blue economy’– which includes energy, foods, shipping and port activity, tourism and marine protection – has an e ..read more

LGPS Central, the £30bn pool for eight local authority pension schemes across the Midlands, has welcomed Richard Law-Deeks (pictured) as its new chief executive. Law-Deeks has quit the Royal Mail Pension Plan, where he was chief executive, to take up this role. He starts in the summer, if the regulator approves the appointment. He cut his teeth in pensions through roles in the local government retirement schemes for Hackney and Hertfordshire. Law-Deeks also sits on the defined benefit (DB) committee of the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association and is a trustee of a DB scheme sponsored by a ..read more

What ESG and sustainable investment initiatives are you undertaking?
 There is a huge amount going on at the moment. Not least, we will be having an election in the UK this year. So for us it is vitally important to make sure all parties – as we engage with all of them – understand the importance of sustainable finance, what they need to do, and what we would like them to do. But also, make sure a core priority is getting private capital into the sustainable transition. What we hear from our members all the time is this huge amount of capital they have and a willingness to invest in sustainabi ..read more

The rise of global shareholder resolutions in recent years can be partly explained by the right to file a shareholder resolution becoming a more common escalation tool for investors. Newton believes shareholder resolutions deserve a case-by-case approach and careful consideration as to the context of the company; our view is that a manager’s shareholder proposal voting record is not always a great proxy for effective stewardship. FIND OUT MORE The post Newton Investment Management – Shareholder resolutions: Defining Newton’s approach appeared first on portfolio institutional ..read more