Financial markets are inherently unpredictable, while structural forces such as shifts in monetary policy, trade conflicts and climate change compound the challenges facing investors. Read our analysis commissioned by Norway’s Ministry of Finance.

Over the last few decades, increasing global economic and financial integration promoted economic development and enabled investors to seek opportunities and spread risks across national borders. This report, which was commission by the Norwegian Ministry of Finance, examines diversification nopportunities including the importance of emerging markets; how a handful of large technology companies accounted for a significant percentage of recent developed-market performance and omitting geographical or size segments would have had a substantial impact on returns; and the role of starting valuations and dividend growth explaining long-term equity market performance.

Investors with strong convictions on emerging markets might consider an approach allowing tilts toward or away from specific themes, such as active allocation to single-country index-based funds. We explore considerations linked with this approach.

Did tariffs imposed by the U.S. and China in May trigger a shift to defensive from cyclical stocks? How did they affect different U.S. sectors and industry groups?

Some large asset owners are increasingly coming to believe that many executive pay schemes don’t align the interests of CEOs and investors. There appears to be an increasing focus on pay plan simplicity and transparency.

The opacity of real estate markets and the wide spectrum of potential outcomes makes it hard to understand performance. Running a historical “what if” analysis may help institutional investors understand how different choices could have impacted outcomes.

During low interest-rate, high-volatility environments, some investors have turned to high dividend-paying stocks. However, overly simplistic approaches to selecting dividend-paying securities exposed investors to potential “yield traps.” Could these traps have been avoided?

Investors and the media have begun to worry that the secured overnight financing rate (SOFR) — the U.S. interest-rate benchmark meant to address issues with and replace USD LIBOR — may introduce a new set of problems. Are the concerns justified?