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Institutional Investor’s Insurance Investment Forum will gather many of the most prominent insurance companies from across the US to debate and determine the best methods for managing their capital and obtaining the necessary alpha. As with other large institutional investors such as endowments, foundations, and pension funds, new investment techniques are changing the way many insurance companies invest in fixed income and other asset classes. How are investment strategies for insurance companies changing? What factors are driving these changes? And what does that bode for the future?

This event will bring to light new investment strategies for capital protection, diversification, and higher risk-adjusted returns, including the role of alternative investments and specialized fixed income products in insurance portfolios. Speakers will suggest solutions to manger selection and cost control issues while informative debate and discussion will provide attendees with a unique outlook into the fixed income markets and best performing asset classes for 2008.

The program’s focus will include an exploration of how insurance companies are increasingly using more sophisticated capital models to obtain a more efficient use of capital. How are models changing and providing a better indication of multiple risk scenarios? How are tax regulations influencing investment strategies?

Through panel discussions, an investment roundtable and sponsor-hosted workshops, investment officers at large North American insurance companies will be provided with the answers they need on how best to manage risks and maximize returns.

Insurance companies interested in receiving an invitation to attend the Insurance Investment Forum as our guest should contact Ann Cornish at (212) 224-3877 or via email at acornish@iiconferences.com.

Investment managers interested in speaking to this exclusive audience should contact Denise C. Coleman at (212) 224-3907 or dcoleman@iiconferences.com.

Trends in Infrastructure Development and Finance in India: The Nexus of Opportunity and Need

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Institutional Investor’s India Infrastructure Investors’ Forum will examine the trends in infrastructure finance and explore the opportunities arising from the country’s need to develop its physical infrastructure in order to sustain its economic, political, and social evolution. India’s drive to transition to a manufacturing and service-based economy has accelerated these changes. In response, the country has budgeted 3.5 percent (US$25.5 billion) on meeting its needs, with aspirations of increasing this allocation to 8 percent.

In order to sustain an economic growth rate of 9 percent per annum, India will require a minimum investment of US$492 billion in its infrastructure.

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Over the course of one and a half days, participants in The Australia Investment Management Summit will hear representatives of the Government, Institutional Investors (Superannuation, Insurance, Corporate Treasury, Sovereign, Endowment, Foundation, etc.) as well as Asset Management Companies explain their strategies, approaches and outlooks on a variety of issues vital to institutional investors and money managers. Formal workshops and panel sessions will provide wide-ranging and insightful information, data and opinions to ensure that participants can gain a full understanding of the issues that matter to them.

To inquire about attending The Australia Investment Management Summit — there is no registration fee for those who are invited to attend, although delegates are responsible for their own travel and accommodations — please contact Teik H. Tan at telephone +612 9460 4760 or via email at teikheng.tan@euromoneyasia.com .

Finding the Correct Balance Between Talent, Cost & Risk

In a world where managers’ marketing rhetoric has changed substantially in the last two years towards selling uniquely skilled alpha-generators to alpha-seeking buyers, the job of identifying attractive, fairly priced talent has become the number one game in town. "We're willing to pay for talent" is the mantra of the contemporary asset management buyer and "we've got it in spades" is the natural response of an industry with ambition.

Yet many suspect the world doesn't change as quickly as marketing speak. Some argue that broadly the same managers are plugging away with largely the same skill sets, offering mostly the same strategies and consequently not responding to the expressed, repeated needs of their clients.

In the 4^th annual European Sub-Advisory Roundtable, we will examine what expectations buyers should have, where the hidden risks are, and what it take to assess, acquire and manage external talent at a price clients can live with — and are willing to pay for.

Attendance at the event is strictly for financial professionals who are responsible for the outsourcing of their organisation’s assets and for the selection of 3rd party managers. For any questions regarding the eligibility criteria for attendance, please contact Ann Cornish at telephone (212) 224-3877 or via email at acornish@iiconferences.com.

To find out more about sponsoring this meeting, contact Stefanie Sables on +44 (0) 7303 1712 or email ssables@iilondon.com.

Finding the Right Balance for Portfolios as Global Risks Rise

The problems in the credit markets have demonstrated once again how difficult it is isolate dislocations in a specific financial sector. Indeed, the effects of the credit market fallout have spread not just across market sectors but geographically as well, frequently blunting the positive aspects of the very diversification that has been designed to reduce downside risks.

Whether any downturn will spread, how extensive it might become in terms of breadth and depth and what such developments could portend for risks and opportunities on the immediate horizon are likely to be some of the key questions institutional investors will be asking themselves. How then will investors rebalance their portfolios to take into account changing market conditions, both real and expected?

Should institutional investors continue to allocate capital to provide adequate returns, protect against the type of over-exposure that can do greater damage than might otherwise be expected, and still ensure that they remain well diversified within their established risk parameters? What role should alternative investments play in this effort and what expectations should investors have based on past performance in previous periods of market gyrations?

Are hedge funds again capable of offering the type of downside risk protection they broadly provided during the technology stock bust in the late 1990s? Will private equity firms continue to find the right sort of financing that continue to make deals and return expectations possible? Can broader global growth offset a slowdown in the U.S. and allow the strong demand for commodities to be maintained?

The Fourth Annual Canadian Alternative Investment Roundtable will examine these macro issues to provide insight and forecasts about potential market developments. The information imparted during the Roundtable’s panel sessions and presentations will be based on recent and current data. Expert speakers will help delegates identify the issues, ideas and concerns so that investors can analyze their portfolios and determine the proper mix of alternative and traditional investment strategies, the asset allocations that will allow them to achieve the risk adjusted-returns they seek.

Institutional Investors who would like to be considered for an invitation to attend the Canadian Alternative Investment Roundtable as our guest should contact David Grana at (212) 224-3734 or at email dgrana@iiconferences.com.

Asset gathers who would like to sponsor the Canadian Alternative Investment Roundtable as our guest should contact Usha Bhate at (212) 224-3429 of by email at ubhate@iiconferences.com.

Transforming Principles into Practical Solutions for DC Plan Sponsors

One of the chief stated needs of DC plan sponsors is information on how to apply the principles of good fiduciary standards (such as the recent PPA) and make them actionable. For example, what is the best means of ensuring that effective communication and advice efforts continue while plans implement automatic enrollment and automatic escalation? What mix of turnkey v. dynamic asset allocation overlay solutions should plans be offering their particular participants? What investment mixes?

Participant behavior is not changing, even after years of intensifying educational efforts and increasing "paternalism" by plan sponsors on behalf of their employees. The PPA’s directives will help sponsors address some of these issues, but not all. How then can companies become more effective in their efforts? Can they, for instance, use employees’ inertia itself in a positive way? What are the "carrots" that can affect changes in behavior and what are the necessary "sticks"?

Many DC-focused events continue to explore current and future regulatory initiatives, but many fail to connect those efforts with the daily concerns of US plan sponsors and most fall short of introducing solutions. Now in its 18th year, Institutional Investor’s Defined Contribution Forum will endeavor to offer those solutions. While the Forum’s program will explore the breadth of issues facing US plans — including various investment offerings, insights into education and advice, an examination of evolving fiduciary responsibilities, etc — the foundation of this year’s meeting will be the best means of transforming principles (ie, good intentions) into practical solutions (answers) for DC plan sponsors.

Plan sponsors interested in receiving an invitation to attend the Defined Contribution Symposium as our guest should contact David Munro at (212) 224-3056 or via email at dmunro@iiconferences.com.

Providers of 401(k) services interested in sponsoring the Forum should contact Adele Langie at (212) 224-3611 or via email at alangie@iimemberships.com.

The Mexico-Asia Investment Forum will bring together high-profile global and regional investors, issuers, policymakers and intermediaries to debate and determine the future of inter-regional capital flows, trade, and investment opportunities, in particular those to be found in Mexican assets. Speakers will include leading figures in global finance, as well as many of Mexico and Asia’s most influential corporate and financial decision makers.

As Asian investors have become a crucial source of investment capital for Mexican companies, the Forum’s interactive panel discussions, keynote addresses by government officials and regulatory authorities, and informative industry-specific workshops will explore how investors and financiers can capitalize on Mexico’s booming export-oriented industries as well as its tourism and consumer goods sectors and burgeoning infrastructure. Bring forward perspectives on both the private and public markets’ roles in investing in Mexican assets, speakers will debate and explore the latest capital market reforms and the innovations that are creating exciting new opportunities for inter-regional issuers and investors and their global counterparts.

Investors who are interested in attending the Forum as our complimentary guests (there is no registration fee for delegates) should contact: Bryan Fox at +1 212-224-3926 or via email at bfox@iiconferences.com. Or Bonnie Tse at +852 2842 6956 (Hong Kong) or via email at bonnie.tse@iiconferencesasia.com.

Firms interested in participating at the Mexico-Asia Investment Forum should contact Ana Sharp at ana.sharp@iiconferencesasia.com.

Getting Back to Basics: Finding the Right Balance in Building Hedge Fund Portfolios Amid Greater Market Uncertainty

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The primary questions for investors now may be both whether there is a better way to evaluate risk when allocating assets to sectors as well as managers. Further, can portfolio construction — when properly understood and executed truly provide the type of downside risk protection necessary to avoid disproportionate losses while holding out the promise of higher returns?

Portfolio diversification is still considered the key to avoiding any distorted impact associated with an investment in subprime loan trading strategies or any particular sector that suffers from distortions caused by excesses of one type or another. Yet in some cases even a relatively small investment in subprime or other niche strategies has resulted in steep losses by certain investors in their overall portfolios, begging the question of when is diversification and the search for returns taken too far?

Through a series of panel discussions and workshops, the unique format of the meeting will not only give you an opportunity to hear discussion addressing prevalent issues facing investors today, but will also provide the occasion to review a wide range of leading hedge fund talent and share experiences and expertise with your fellow investors.

Investors wishing to be considered for an invitation should contact David Grana at telephone (212) 224-3734 or via email at dgrana@iiconferences.com.

Hedge funds and hedge funds of funds interested in speaking to this exclusive audience should contact Kristin Zammit at 212-224-3063 or kzammit@iiconferences.com.

Delivering Investment Products for a Changing, Global Market

This year the Roundtable will once again bring together leading participants in the sub-advisory marketplace to examine the trends and strategies that are shaping this business, and to assess the precise benefits and weaknesses of sub-advisory relationships.

A number of factors are pushing firms to find better and more diverse investment solutions for their clients, who are in turn responding to pressures from their investors. As one example, both the institutional and retail markets are increasingly interested in global assets, leaving some firms scrambling to catch up with demand for products and strategies that have not historically been their strong suit.

How will firms find the means to take advantage of this promising new world of investment opportunities while managing a growing set of risks? Where will firms find consistent, higher risk-managed returns to offer their clients? Further, how can those firms that have decided to engage sub-advisors or increase their use maintain their fiduciary duties and apply those responsibilities to their sub-advised funds? Will manager selection and monitoring methods be able to adapt?

In sum, while the sub-advisory business is creating its own risks it is also creating enormous opportunities for firms. Correctly designed sub-advisory alliances with third party asset managers can free up their organization to focus on their core competencies, improve their product offerings, and grow their client base. All at the pace that is necessary to stay competitive in this changing, global market.

Insurance Companies and Banks (e.g., heads of asset management, chief executives, chief investment officers, chief operating officers, portfolio managers, or heads of manager-selection) who have outsourced or who are looking to outsource assets to third parties and who would like to be considered for an invitation to the Roundtable should contact Ann Cornish at 212-224-3877 or acornish@iiconferences.com.

For more information about participating at the Roundtable as a sponsor and the attendant speaking opportunities, please contact Kristin Zammit at 212-224-3063 or kzammit@iiconferences.com.

Excellent Execution: Strategy, Innovation, and Profits

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Times like these often cause us to reevaluate what is working and what isn’t, and to reassess where we stand vis-à-vis important constituencies like competitors, shareholders, employees, chief executives and boards, etc. Senior financial executives have gotten quite good at strategy for the most part, but maybe it is time to renew our focus on execution — turning those strategies into action in the most intelligent, efficient, cost-effective, and productive ways possible. After all, is it the strategizing itself or the implementation of those ideas that helps any firm distance itself from its competitors and provide better value to its shareholders? Arguably, both. But it is the CFO, in his/her role as business partner to the CEO, who is ultimately made or broken by his ability to execute.

This year’s theme, Excellent Execution: Strategy, Innovation, and Profits will explore that idea. As always, the 2008 Corporate Financial Executive Roundtable will explore the full array of issues facing senior financial executives and their companies, but it will pay special heed to how participants can excel in terms of delivering on the promises they make to their chief executives, employees, and shareholders. The program, conceptualized and guided by an Advisory Board of your peers, will consider such topics as:

• How to manage through a market cycle — obtaining financing, labor force, managing costs, how do you maintain the same level of customer service while keep costs in line with the business?
• The HR function within finance — staffing, training, retaining, succession issues
• Managing outside influences on business and audit committees
• Share repurchasing — Is it the best use of your cash?
• How to improve terms and conditions of credit
• Managing new market methods — text messaging, mobile commerce
• Intellectual property — In how many countries do you need to protect your name and your brand equity?
• How do you manage internal risk and potential fraud?
• Care and feeding of shareholders (targeted investors)
• Placement for best tax rates and low payroll
• XBRL — Extensive Business Reporting Language
• Tax management — the movement toward a unitary approach by the states
• Impending changes to the tax code
• Fiduciary responsibility for legacy and active DB plans
• What are the dollar benefits of "going green"? Is it about more than marketing and communications?
• How to manage the IR function better
• International M&A
• Master Data Management

Dealing with the Mounting Pressures

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The pressures confronting board members, and the corporations they direct, are increasing in both scope and severity. As a result, directors need to increase their knowledge base as never before, to include quite advanced financial expertise along with proficiency of the risks facing their firms, regulatory and governance concerns, and the all-important "people" issues. As importantly, directors must increase their ability to manage their time, gain new expertise in different and developing areas, and maintain ethical and procedural standards.

Accordingly, Institutional Investor’s 3rd Annual Board Member/CFO Symposium will continue its tradition of offering board members the knowledge they require to do their jobs better and to adapt to the changing needs of the companies they serve. Developed and guided by an Advisory Board of leading board directors, this year’s agenda will offer the information board members need to respond to the challenges presented by:

• enterprise risk management
• dealing with new and unexpected challenges
• reputation and career risks
• corporate acquisitions and divestments
• aligning and managing corporate values
• compensation
• best practices for triaging the electronic world
• managing increasing demands on your time and schedule
• effective board assessment
• evaluating strategic challenges in corporate structure and financing
• auditors’ perspective vis-à-vis the board’s perspective
• expressing your unique viewpoint without gaining a reputation as a maverick.

Optimal Investing in a Brave New World

Institutional Investor is proud to announce the 7th Annual European Investment Roundtable. This event continues to be an exclusive meeting, attracting a select gathering of senior investment executives from European pension and insurance funds. We would like to cordially invite you to join us and your peers on 17-19 September 2008 at the Grand Hotel in Florence, Italy to hear and participate in what promises to be an invaluable program, comprised of informative panel sessions, presentations and discussion groups.

The theme of the Roundtable, "Optimal Investing in a Brave New World" indicates the focus of the 2008 program. This consists of identifying and exploring relevant issues including the magnitude of investment skills among Europe’s institutional funds, the new challenges facing investment officers, and the outlook for important investment vehicles and instruments. Many funds have undergone major restructurings in recent years, in response both to a far more challenging regulatory environment and to the adoption of increasingly sophisticated asset allocation approaches. These structural changes have been immensely demanding on time and resources. However, no amount of concentration upon them can divert from the need to identify and deploy investment skills to achieve active performance.

The recent credit and liquidity crisis has directly affected the fortunes of many funds, creating winners and losers whether by accident or design. More importantly, three major uncertainties remain: when the current crisis will be resolved and how this can be measured; the impact of further initiatives taken by regulators and authorities to shore up the global financial system; and the nature of a future crisis emerging from another, unexpected, direction.

All of these uncertainties have potentially profound implications for the formulation of investment policy and strategy at institutional funds. The perennial challenge remains defined by the trade-off between maintaining fund health and solvency on the one hand, and taking advantage of abnormal return opportunities on the other. If the credit crisis has taught us one thing, it is that it is perfectly possible to play it safe and still lose. Therefore, the stakes have risen, and the new circumstances will test the mettle of fund CIOs and CEOs as never before.

Service providers interested in sponsoring this by-invitation-only meeting should contact Stefanie Sables at +44-0207-303-1712 or ssables@iilondon.com.

Investors wishing to register to attend the Roundtable should contact Iqbal Patel at telephone +44 (0) 20 7303 1730 or via email at ipatel@iiconferences.com.

Maintaining Equilibrium for Affluent Families in a Riskier Environment

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The combined risks associated with the dislocations in the credit markets, still great geopolitical struggles, and a divisive and uncertain domestic political front represent an environment with unique multiple challenges.

For investment portfolios, the credit market crisis has demonstrated how globalized the world has become as the fallout has spread across both market sectors and borders — blunting some of the reasoning that diversification can consistently reduce downside risks. At the same time, when such events occur in the financial markets they always produce distinctive investment opportunities that astute investors can profit from.

In the geopolitical arena, the U.S. and the Western world continue to confront religiously inspired terrorism for which there is no easy answer; the diplomatic, economic and military response to which has divided as much as separated us on issues great and small. Along with this overarching issue, on the global stage the U.S. faces increasing competition and questions about its dominant leadership position from rising powers that in too many cases set undesirable examples of economic development amid suppression of individual and political expression.

Finally, domestic divisions and discord compound the difficulty of predicting our sustained responses to these immense economic and geopolitical challenges while raising doubts about future policies regarding taxes, spending and national priorities related to health, education, the environment and other vital issues.

How can affluent families gain a better understanding of these complex matters to help them maintain their equilibrium and find the right balance in their own lives, whether in relates to reallocating assets to provide better returns and risk protection, or in offering assurance in the policies and elected leaders they choose to support? How can children be made to feel safe and secure in such an environment while still being prepared to accept the many responsibilities that lie before them as they grow?

The 9th Annual Institutional Investor/Lido Consulting Family Office Wealth Conference will offer a forum in which a variety of perspectives, ideas and viewpoints will be provided on these and other topics essential for affluent families to appreciate as they navigate in a world in which the risks that exist have increased along with the potential responses to deal with them.

Through a series of presentations and panel discussions and array of experts, seasoned family office executives and family members will examine these issues and put them in context with current events, trends and forecasts that can help families seeking to make informed decisions and to develop plans of action that make sense from the perspective of their personal ideals, values, goals and family dynamics.

Family office representatives may attend this event by invitation only, which requires a fee to register. Family office representatives interested in registering should please contact Usha Bhate at (212) 224-3429 or at email ubhate@iiconferences.com.

Companies interested in sponsoring this exclusive conference should contact Usha Bhate at (212) 224-3429 or email ubhate@iiconferences.

A limited number of sponsorships are available.

Investing in India’s Most Promising Sectors

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India’s largest and most prestigious investment Forum returns for its fifth year in September 2008 as a two-day private event for portfolio and direct investors seeking leverage in investment opportunities in one of the world’s fastest-growing and most dynamic markets. The 5th Annual India Investment Forum is co-hosted by Citigroup and Kotak, leading financial institutions in the world’s two largest democracies, and it continues our tradition of bringing top government officials and corporate executives from India to meet investment executives from U.S. institutions.

The timing couldn’t be better. The Forum follows immediately after the opening of the 63rd session of the United Nations General Assembly and as preparations begin, India is rounding off a fifth successive year of stunning economic growth. Economic growth of around 7% ranks India among the world’s fastest-growing economies in 2007.

The specter of inflation was stoked by a credit boom earlier in the year only to be dissipated by timely intervention of the Reserve Bank of India. Inflation has cooled, and a feared slowdown was averted. Investors are taking note. Foreign investors last year directed risk capital on the order of US$30 billion towards India, only to be outspent by Indian companies, who invested nearly US$50 billion in foreign acquisitions.

This year’s Forum will provide fresh perspectives on India’s economic growth, financial markets and key industries in the year ahead. The 5th Annual India Investment Forum presents a platform for investors to gain market intelligence in order to excel in investment decision-making to better access the investment opportunities to be found in India’s key sectors. Investors will gain first-hand knowledge of new regulatory and legal developments in India, analysis of size and growth potential for the most attractive sectors and a keen realization of investment value represented by India assets.

Investors and issuers who are interested in attending the Forum as our complimentary guests (there is no registration fee for delegates) should contact: Bryan Fox at +1 212-224-3926 or via email at bfox@iiconferences.com. Or Bonnie Tse at +852 2842 6956 (Hong Kong) or via email at bonnie.tse@iiconferencesasia.com.

Firms interested in participating at the 5th Annual India Investment Forum should contact Ana Sharp, President - Asia Pacific, Global Head - Country Conferences, Institutional Investor at +852 2842 6943 (Hong Kong) or via email at ana.sharp@iiconferencesasia.com.

The Forum will be officially supported by the Department of Planning and Economy — Abu Dhabi. It will showcase the impressive range of investment opportunities now available in Abu Dhabi. The Forum will be an invitation only event and will be covered by the media. It will bring together international investors with Abu Dhabi’s key industry leaders, financial intermediaries and high-profile policy makers.

For further information on the event please contact Charlie Floyd at (212) 224 3975 or via email at cfloyd@iiconferences.com For further information on the event please contact Charlie Floyd at (212) 224 3975 or via email at cfloyd@iiconferences.com