Research Report

Asset owners use indexes as policy benchmarks and reference portfolios in their asset allocation. Index investors track cap-weighted indexes that seek to capture the market return. Active investors select securities and build portfolios that aim to outperform the market. All these types of investors may be able to benefit from incorporating factors into their process. More importantly, they may also be able to integrate factors without compromising other fundamentally important aspects of...

Indexes Portfolio Management Analytics

MSCI Blog

We summarize the performance of major asset classes based on the latest update of MSCI’s private-funds data universe and explore trends in distributions — a key concern for asset owners.  

Research Report

The erosion of the real estate home bias: an australian case study in risk diversification. As an asset class, real estate investing typically has a high degree of home bias, especially when compared to equities and fixed interest. However, this real estate home bias is starting to erode, with asset owners in most countries already investing internationally or actively exploring the options for building offshore exposures. Some of these asset owners are motivated purely by pricing, but many...

Real Assets

MSCI Blog

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.

MSCI Blog

Asset owners who want to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius (1.5°C) have a tough row to hoe.

ESG Indexes ESG Climate Solutions

Research Report

Asset owners face a challenge in determining how the factor allocation fits into the overall equity program, in particular how the factor allocation relates to the existing roster of active managers. This paper uses a risk budgeting framework to investigate how active mandates and factor allocations can be combined. We address three key questions: 1) how does the level of active risk in active management affect the factor allocation decision, 2) what share of the portfolio can be deployed to...

Indexes

Research Report

Indexes ESG Products & Services

Research Report

HOW CAN UNIVERSAL OWNERS INTEGRATE ESG PRINCIPLES WHILE MAINTAINING A BROAD AND DIVERSIFIED INVESTMENT UNIVERSE? Institutional investors are increasingly looking for ways to integrate ESG considerations into their investment decisions. By doing so, they may aim to mitigate long-term risks, generate higher risk-adjusted performance and/or align investments with broader societal objectives. As ESG investment guidelines become more commonplace among asset owners, and as many continue to build...

ESG Products & Services

MSCI Blog

As the world moves toward a low-carbon future, companies of many stripes are adopting renewable and clean-energy technologies. That, of course, has implications for stocks and the portfolios that hold them. How can asset owners understand the carbon-transition risks in their portfolios?

Research Report

Winner of the 2015 IRRC Institute Investor Research Award for best practitioner paper. Approaches based on divesting certain sectors effectively can help asset owners communicate their concerns about the risks of climate change to stakeholders. However, they ignore short-term benchmark risk. Further, a focus on divesting reserves disregards fixed assets that are at risk of losing value because they depend on burning fossil fuel reserves. This paper provides a framework for evaluating ways to...

Indexes ESG Products & Services