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Moving on from hedge funds: alternative risk premia
17 May 2017Insurers have been looking at alternative risk premia strategies as a substitute for poorly performing hedge fund investments. The strategies offer a cheap and transparent way of getting exposure to hedge fund-like returns but there are complications. Sarfraz Thind reports
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Emerging market debt: fundamentally attractive
10 May 2017With strong and improving fundamentals underpinning emerging market debt, AllianceBernstein's Arnaud Mounier and Shamaila Khan argue that insurers should consider the asset class as a core strategic allocation, rather than an opportunistic diversifier.
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'Insurers need to move from climate talk to climate action'
05 May 2017Axa and Vivat's investment arms recently announced coal exclusion policies, while Axa also committed to stop underwriting coal projects – could this be a model for the rest of the industry? Peter Bosshard from anti-fossil fuel NGO the Sunrise Project comments.
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Factor investing - from idea to implementation
03 May 2017Eager for better risk-adjusted returns and greater diversification, insurers are warming up to factor-based investment strategies. Invesco's Ed Collinge and Georg Elsaesser explain why the approach is proving popular with the industry.
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French elections are "crucial" for future of Europe, says NN's CIO
28 April 2017Political events emerge as number one concern for insurance investment chiefs in Goldman Sachs Asset Management's survey of insurance investors, having not been considered as a threat in 2015. Asa Gibson reports
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Outsourced or in-house: Zurich's CIO on finding the right balance
26 April 2017Urban Angehrn oversees Zurich Insurance Group's $190bn asset book. With no pure asset management business in the group, he talks to Asa Gibson about selecting managers, deciding when to manage in-house and the importance of responsible investment.
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Climate risk: how insurers are failing to join the dots on the investment side
12 April 2017The quantification of climate-related risks is strategically important for insurers in terms of underwriting and investing performance, but the industry is accused of not leveraging its underwriting expertise to benefit its asset allocation strategy. Environmental Finance's Peter Cripps reports
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Diversified Growth Funds - manna or mania?
07 April 2017Diversified growth funds promise equity-like returns with fixed income-type capital charges. It certainly looks an interesting proposition for insurers in the current low yield world. But how well do the promises stack up? Sarfraz Thind reports
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Alternatives shine for Lloyd's syndicates
05 April 2017Following the insights gleaned on rising manager fees and falling yields for Lloyd's syndicates, David Walker shines light on the well-performing fraction of alternative investments made by the sector in 2015.
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The Solvency II mandate race
29 March 2017Solvency II has turbo-boosted the move to insurance asset outsourcing. Asset managers are beefing up their capabilities to win market share—but what can you do to make yourself stand out from the crowd? Sarfraz Thind reports
- M&G JV with Asian pension fund to invest £1bn in UK housing
- Insurance sector the "natural home" of productive assets, L&G says
- Barings acquires Sydney office building for AU $360m
- BoE zeroes in on private market risks to insurers and UK financial system
- Meiji Yasuda expands backing of regional revitalisation startup
- Chart of the Week - The rise and rise of (small) insurers investing in private assets
- Insurance Development Forum reaches first close on Infrastructure Resilience Development Fund
- Aviva Investors finances £175m loan for acquisition of central London property
- Private credit: the feel-good factor?
- Private credit: are headline news and underlying performance one and the same?