U.S. public pension chief investment officers are gaining authority over investment decisions as portfolios become more complex, their organizations build deeper internal teams, and AI makes funds more self-sufficient — a transformation some experts predict could eventually reduce pension funds’ reliance on intermediaries such as consultants and external managers.
Ashby Monk, executive and research director of the Stanford Research Initiative on Long-Term Investing, said that the evolution of the public pension fund CIO over the last 10 years has primarily been around internalizing the choices around asset allocation and some of the implementation, as opposed to the old model of a board having to approve individual investment actions recommended by staff and an investment consultant.
“Whether that is direct investing in equities or fixed income or real estate — or, if you’re a Canadian pension, doing direct infrastructure platform companies — what we’ve seen over the last decade is CIOs balancing that internal-external dynamic,” he said.
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