Public Funds Roundtable 2018

Institutional Investor Case Study: Aligning the Public Pension Portfolio

The traditional American public pension portfolio is well known: a big slice of public equities, some debt, a few esoteric strategies, perhaps some hedge funds — and a whole lot of real estate and private equity. Variance is rare — and change is slow.

However, some plans are reshaping the entire alignment of public pension plan portfolio management, team structure, innovation, and risk. 

Are they smart — or are they crazy? Decide for yourself.

Institutional Investor Case Study: Aligning the Public Pension Portfolio

The traditional American public pension portfolio is well known: a big slice of public equities, some debt, a few esoteric strategies, perhaps some hedge funds — and a whole lot of real estate and private equity. Variance is rare — and change is slow.

However, some plans are reshaping the entire alignment of public pension plan portfolio management, team structure, innovation, and risk. 

Are they smart — or are they crazy? Decide for yourself.

Artificial Intelligence Boot Camp:  Private Conversation for Asset Allocators Only

What are the most impactful ways that artificial intelligence and machine learning will change institutional investment decision-making? What are the most important concepts and algorithms — and how do you apply them to your portfolio? Will the way we allocate fundamentally change?

Before the Roundtable’s start, join a select group of asset allocators only for the first ever artificial intelligence and machine learning boot camp and discussion group, led by the OPTrust investment office.

Fireside Chat: Manny Roman, the Man Who’s Making PIMCO Exciting Again

Now he’s getting the Alternative Investor Institute treatment with a fireside chat to discuss what the future holds for one of asset management’s most storied firms and the market in which it operates. Hint: It’s not boring in the slightest.

Idea Labs: Reconstructing the Public Pension Portfolio

Through the posing of concrete questions to small discussion groups, and in light of the ideas presented in the previous case study, delegates will have the opportunity to share their views on the new models of public pension investing. Discussion tables are seated so that you may engage with a diverse group of peers. The only rule: No sacred cows allowed.

Obscure Now — But Not Obscure for Long

Recall the day when private credit was obscure — and about to explode on the institutional investment scene.

Now imagine if you were in private credit before everyone else.

There exist, right now, strategies that will allow those who allocate to see returns well above their projected rates of return. The trick, of course, is singling out those strategies from those that are dead on arrival.

Join cutting-edge allocators and managers in a discussion of just what those not-obscure-for-long strategies will be.

Breakouts: Finding the Uncorrelated Diamonds in the Rough

Part panel, part discussion group, these concurrent sessions (pick your poison) will drill down on various silos of alternative investments — and how allocators can benefit from more nuanced views of each. Come prepared to examine and explore — bring your microscope.

Private Equity and the Incredible Shrinking Public Markets

Private equity often dominates public pension portfolios — and this bet has paid off handsomely for many allocators for many years. However, changing dynamics in both private and public markets call into question the persistence of this status quo. How can allocators, and the managers who invest on their behalf, ensure that the next great idea won’t be lost in a sea of lackluster capital?

Private Credit: Demystifying the Flood of Capital

Rarely has any strategy caught fire as quickly as did private credit — which, along with its stellar returns, has caused a spike in cynicism about the asset class’s long-term viability. How can allocators ensure that they will continue to benefit from this strategy without succumbing to bubble fever?

The Desperate Search for the Uncorrelated

Marketable alternatives (hedge funds, for those of you uneducated in the latest labels) have a stronger raison d’être than return stream as of late — meaning the time will come when institutional portfolios clamor to hold hedge funds once again. Before that time (a recession!) comes along, what can allocators do to ensure that they find the right strategies, geographies, and managers?

The Next Generation of Public Fund CIOs

On your mark . . . get set . . . go. Watch the best and brightest not-yet–chief investment officers go head to head. Over a series of lightning rounds, each panelist will compete to answer pressing — and confidential — institutional investing questions. The audience will then vote on who will be a finalist for the Next CIO Award, to be presented at the Allocators’ Choice Awards on November 29, 2018, in New York City.

Institutional Investor Case Study: Successfully Insourcing an American Pension Portfolio

Governance has long been blamed for both a lack of innovation in investing and robust internal investment teams at American public pension plans.

It need not be that way any longer.

Take an inside look at an investment organization that has overcome governance hurdles to effectively partner with outside providers — while concurrently bringing a significant proportion of its investment management in-house.

Idea Labs: Hacking the Governance Challenge

Through the posing of concrete questions to small discussion groups, and in light of the ideas presented in the previous case study, delegates will have the opportunity to debate and discuss methods of navigating the challenges posed by their specific governance structures. Discussion tables are seated so that you may engage with a diverse group of peers. The only rule: No sacred cows allowed.

Rapid-Fire: The Non-Market Risks that You Worry Will Destroy Everything

In lightning-round format (to wake you up from lunch), six CIOs will take questions on what non-market risks most threaten their portfolios, their teams, and their careers.

Crisis Risk Offset: New Strategic Asset Class or Siren Song?

Some describe it as a “new strategic asset class” designed to “materially appreciate in value at a time when growth-risk-related assets are experiencing significant challenges.” Others, specifically Institutional Investor columnist Angelo Calvello, describe it as the “Siren of the Year” — “deceptively alluring, but misleading.” Hear from those who have allocated — and those who avoid, like the plague, this new (or not so new?) strategy.

The Technology Between Us

The ways asset allocators evaluate risk — and apply their conclusions — have changed dramatically in the past decade. In this environment, platforms are arising to facilitate that analysis and those decisions. Asset managers need to understand how these platforms work; consultants need to understand who’s using them and how; and allocators need to understand how to leverage them. This is not a test — it’s a primer.

Point/Counterpoint: Portfolio Theory Edition

Risk factor investors often argue that their paradigm is an evolution of risk parity portfolios. Risk parity managers, on the other hand, often argue that this is incorrect — and that risk factor proponents are making assumptions they shouldn’t be. Hear from both managers and allocators about this fundamental debate, which permeates both asset allocation and manager selection. Feel free to egg them on.

Rapid-Fire: The Market Risks that You Worry Will Destroy Everything

Again in lightning-round style, six new CIOs will take questions on what market-based risks they most fear as the bull market (let’s hope it’s still going by Roundtable time . . .) enters its ninth year.

The Talent Crisis

Sure, private equity and hedge fund firms can easily attract and keep talent (*ahem* paychecks *ahem*) — but the equation is different when it comes to a life of civil service in the public sector. It’s thus essential that team leaders in the public plans space provide more than money. But what exactly is in the secret sauce?

Human Capital Breakouts

Part panel, part discussion group, these concurrent sessions (pick your poison) will take deep dives into the issues of human capital. Come prepared to confront hard truths — and help find solutions. 

The Unrepresented Voices of Asset Management

If you don’t know by now, you haven’t been paying attention: The asset management industrial complex has largely failed to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace. How can allocators and managers together effectively break the historic gender and ethnic imbalance (beyond tokenism) in the workplace — and what benefits will they see if they succeed?

Nothing Lasts Forever

News flash: You won’t be in your role forever. And if you care about your organization and its underlying mission, you will also care about who follows you in your role — and having him or her be successful at it. Learn from an array of market participants — recruiters, seasoned CIOs, and newcomers — about how individuals and organizations can pay it forward and weather what is inherently a difficult process.

The Culture Wars

You come to the realization that your new (or current) organization is not nearly as efficient, productive, and collaborative as your platonic ideal. What do you do? Running away isn’t an option, so learn how to envision the big picture while sweating the small details about one of life’s hardest challenges: changing a culture from within.