The Wall Street Journal: Investors Pull Cash from Hedge Funds as Returns Lag Market, March 31, 2016

Investors Pull Cash From Hedge Funds as Returns Lag Market

In last quarter of 2015, more money was withdrawn from hedge funds than was taken in. . . Pension funds, insurers and university endowments helped pump up hedge funds to a record $3 trillion in assets over the last decade. But with results falling behind a more traditional mix of stocks and bonds for six straight years and the high-fee structure now politically sensitive in some states due to uneven results, many of them are pulling back.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/investors-message-to-hedge-funds-we-are-replacing-you-with-clones-1459348497

If the link doesn't work, read below:

The Wall Street Journal

Investors Pull Cash From Hedge Funds as Returns Lag Market

In last quarter of 2015, more money was withdrawn from hedge funds than was taken in

TIMOTHY W. MARTIN and

ROB COPELAND

Updated March 30, 2016 3:00 p.m. ET

Marc Levine, chairman of the $16 billion Illinois State Board of Investment, had a provocative question this month during a board meeting about hedge funds.

“Why do I need you?” Mr. Levine asked. A lot of big investors are asking the same question.

Pension funds, insurers and university endowments helped pump up hedge funds to a record $3 trillion in assets over the last decade. But with results falling behind a more traditional mix of stocks and bonds for six straight years and the high-fee structure now politically sensitive in some states due to uneven results, many of them are pulling back.

Pension Fund RSG: Soft landing and what's wrong with this picture? March 29, 2016

When Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Carolyn Boykin to the UN Pension Fund as his Representative for Investments in September 2014, rumors swirled like snowflakes that the new RSG had a spotty record --  something to do with the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System where she was Chief Investment Officer from 1999 to 2003.

That she was arriving fresh from her position as President of the Bolton Partners Investment Consulting Group, Inc., didn’t help to tamp down the unease. Bolton? As in one John Robert Bolton, former US Ambassador to the UN (2005-2006) who famously opined that “There's no such thing as the United Nations. If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference"? Bolton Partners Investment Consulting Group, Inc. is apparently not that Bolton. Nevertheless, for some, the shock of the name was sufficient to question the new relationship before it got out of the starting block. For the rest of us, we shifted our doubts into park and hoped for the best.

UNJSPF RSG for Investments: Who's Minding the Store? March 25, 2016

You may recall that on 11 February 2016, Ms. Theresa Panuccio, Acting Chair of the Pension Board Assets and Liabilities Monitoring Committee, wrote to the Secretary-General, stating that the Investment Management Division (headed by the Representative of the Secretary-General for Investments, RSG, Ms. Carolyn Boykin) is “dangerously understaffed”, with five empty “high level vacancies”, “dealing with investments, risk and other important functions. .. leaving the RSG to manage alone with the help of junior staff” and that .” . . . transactions . . . being carried out without the appropriate back-up signatures, in open disregard of proper clearance mechanisms. . clearly violate[ing] the Investment Policy . . ." and are a "loud danger signal" (see article and related letters on UN Pension Blog). Ms. Panuccio asked the SG to ensure the situation is "corrected swiftly."

AFICS Governing Board. Sorry, shop closed. Try again next year. March 19, 2016

By now AFICS members have received by snail mail the cheery little note from the F/AFICS President (one and the same) dated ‘March 2016’ informing us that its 46th Annual Assembly will be held on Thursday, 19 May 2016.

Anticipation builds as we learn that the "Nominating Committee of the Governing Board has put forward 10 candidates” to fill six vacancies.

Instructions are very specific: “On the ballot: Do NOT write your name on the ballot; Vote for up to SIX candidates but NOT more; (If you vote for more than six candidates your ballot is INVALID); Print your name in CAPS on the envelope (top left corner). On the envelope: Do not sign the ballot; Return your ballot in the enclosed envelope; Print your name and return address on the envelope; Envelopes with no name or an illegible name will not be opened."  Ballots are to be returned no later than 29 April 2016.

"Loud danger signal": Pension Fund Assets and Liabilities Monitoring Committee Chair to SG: act swiftly to correct, March 16, 2016

For now, I’m filing this one under “So we don’t have enough to worry about.” On the one hand, the Fund Secretariat, under mismanagement by the Fund CEO, is experiencing protracted processing delays that have caused widespread suffering among recent retirees and survivors, low staff morale, and serial attempts to disassociate the Fund from the UN. The CEO is the subject of a petition to the SG asking for him to be replaced by someone with the will and skill to fix the problems at the Fund.  (Please join the effort by signing the petition).

Now we hear from Ms. Theresa Panuccio, Acting Chair of the Pension Board's Assets and Liabilities Monitoring Committee, in a very worried letter to the Secretary-General dated 11 February 2016, that on the other side of the Pension Fund, the Investment Management Division,  “a management issue” with a “very high operational risk” is so “grave”” that it may jeopardize  ”the USD 52 billion dollars investment” and “put our pensions at risk”.

(Ms. Panuccio's letter and the response dated 17 February 2016 from USG for Management, Yukio Takasu on behalf of the Secretary-General are posted in full on UN Pension Blog).

What is this clear and present danger to our Fund?

Pension Board Committee Chair asks SG to help RSG resolve "high operational risk" for the Fund; Mr. Takasu gives assurances, March 16, 2016

On 11 February 2016, the Acting Chair of the Pension Board Assets and Liabilities Monitoring Committee, Ms. Theresa Panuccio,  wrote to the SG about a "management issue which has a very high operational risk for the Pension Fund and its beneficiaries...". On 17 February 2016, USG for Management, Yukio Takasu, responded on behalf of the SG, giving assurances "that the the necessary guidance and assistance will continue to be accorded to the RSG to assist her to urgently finalize the recruitment of these critical vacancies."

Tribune de Genève: UN staff and retirees demanding accountability from their Pension Fund, 6 March 2016

Tribune de Genève

Excerpt:

“UN retirees find themselves penniless. 

International Geneva officials demanding accountability for their pension funds. Delays in the payment of annuities accumulate. . . Growing anger among the officials of the UN, or rather among the former officials, who have retired recently. Months pass and bonuses are not always paid on their behalf. All agencies of the UN system are concerned. A problem that is linked to the implementation of a new computer system.

According to the unions, several hundred people were thus deprived of their pension. Some could no longer pay their rent or face their credits and expenses. Many are beginning to wonder about the reasons for the malfunction. Several times in recent years, the lack of transparency surrounding the governance of the Pension Fund of the United Nations Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF) established in 1949 has fueled rumors, criticism and reports. . . ”

Read more here (translation into English and other languages available):

http://www.tdg.ch/news/standard/retraites-onu-retrouvent-sou/story/28712143

UN Staff Unions to Fifth Committee today: Pension Fund CEO must be replaced, March 4, 2016

Today, Ian Richards, Vice-President of the UN Staff-Management Committee, delivered a statement to the Fifth Committee on behalf of Staff Unions of the UN Secretariat, Funds and Programmes, under Agenda item 139: Human Resources Management, in which he informed the Committee about payment delays and other management issues at the Fund, and stated that whereas the UN Secretary General has heard the Staff Unions and placed the CEO on a performance improvement plan to clear the backlog by the end of May, the Staff Unions have started a petition to replace the CEO with someone "with the skills to fix the Fund's problems and restore staff morale."

Pension matters: Giving credit where it's due: Bravo CCISUA and FICSA for pushing for change! March 2, 2016

Yesterday’s iSeek article (below) from the UN Department for Management setting out measures to address the serious processing delays that have caused retirees and survivors to wait for a minimum of six months (and years in some cases) for their pension payments didn’t come out of thin air. 

We know that when CCISUA and FICSA met with the Secretary-General and USG Takasu in November 2015 they inveighed on the UN leadership to address the delays, and put forth specific proposals including establishing progress benchmarks and bringing back retired Fund retirees to pitch in and help.