CIO’s Ninth Annual Industry Innovation Awards: Nominations Open

It’s time again to nominate and celebrate the industry’s most innovative asset owners and managers/servicers. CIO’s ninth annual Industry Innovation Awards will take place December 13 at the New York Public Library, celebrating the most innovative and talented players of institutional investing.

Please nominate asset owners and managers/servicers for this year’s awards via our digital survey or by filling out our 2018 CIO nominations form and emailing your nominations to CIOeditors@strategic-i.com. Nominations will close August 4, and all finalists will be announced in early September.

This year, the CIO editorial team will consult an advisory board of former and current chief investment officers, including Raphael Arndt, CIO of Australia’s Future Fund; Jagdeep Singh Bachher, CIO, vice president of Investments, University of California; Matt Clark, CIO, South Dakota Investment Council; Scott Evans, CIO of the New York City Pension Funds; David Holmgren, CIO of Hartford HealthCare; Tom Joy, CIO, Church of England; Kim Lew, CIO, Carnegie Corporation of New York; Richard Nuzum, president of Mercer’s global wealth business (2017 Consultant of the Year); and Bob Watson, CIO of FCA US. Some categories, such as investment outsourcing, transition management, and corporate investment strategies, will be judged largely on data collected via the CIO survey system.

The lifetime achievement award, which Ashbel C. “Ash” Williams, executive director and CIO of the Florida State Board of Administration (SBA), won last year, will be presented at the dinner. An overall winner from the asset owner categories will also be chosen and awarded CIO of the Year (presented last year to Evans).

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Our Next Generation Award is chosen the evening of the awards dinner, following a panel at the CIO Influential Investors’ Forum.

This year’s asset owner categories include (2017 winners in parentheses):

Foundation (Carnegie Foundation, Kim Lew)

Endowment (Church Commissioners for England, Tom Joy)

Corporate Defined Benefit Pension Plan Below $5 Billion (Computer Sciences – CSRA Inc., Brian Reed)

Corporate Defined Benefit Pension Plan Above $5 Billion (ABB,Elisabeth Bourqui)

Public Defined Benefit Plan Below $15 Billion (South Dakota Investment Council, Matt Clark)

Public Defined Benefit Plan Between $15 Billion and $100 Billion (Hawaii Employees’ Retirement System, Vijoy Chattergy)

Public Defined Benefit Plan Above $100 Billion (NYC Retirement System, Scott Evans)

Sovereign Wealth Fund (Australian Future Fund, Raphael Arndt)

Healthcare Organization (Hartford HealthCare, David Holmgren)

Defined Contribution Plan (Fiat Chrysler FCA US,Bob Watson)

ESG(University of California Regents, Jagdeep Singh Bachher)

Next Generation (W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Carlos Rangel)
Consulting (Mercer,Rich Nuzum)

*New 2018 Category: Collaboration

Asset management categories include (2017 winners in parentheses; italics indicate altered category):

Fixed Income (Nuveen Asset Management)

Equities (including alternative equity beta) (BlackRock)

Multi-Asset (including risk-balanced strategies) (Neuberger Berman)

Private Equity (Apollo Global Management)

Hedge Funds (Citadel)

Real Assets (AEW Global)

Defined Contribution Strategies (Prudential)

Investment Outsourcing (Russell Investments)

Corporate Investment Strategies (includes the overall criteria to helpcorporate CIOs achieve their goals including positioning for growth, innovation in risk management, and hedging overall portfolios.)

(Legal & General Investment Management America)

Transition Management (BlackRock)

Data & Technology (FactSet)

ESG Investing(Generation Investment Management)

*New 2018 Category: Emerging Markets

*New 2018 Category: Corporate LDI Strategies

Tags: CIO, Innovation Awards

The UK’s High Court has approved insurance company Royal London’s plan to allow customers with guaranteed annuity rates to convert their guarantees into a boost to the value of their pension.

Royal London said the plan was aimed at resolving the issue of policyholders who “throw away valuable guaranteed annuity rates.”

The firm said that since pension freedoms were introduced in 2015, there has been a large uptick in the number of customers deciding to take their pension savings in cash rather than buying an annuity at what it deems a “generous guaranteed rate.” Royal London estimated that approximately 60% of policyholders with these guarantees are surrendering them because they prefer to withdraw their capital rather than buy an annuity.

“The High Court’s decision is a welcome step forward in the process of looking after our former Scottish Life customers who hold these guaranteed annuity Rate products,” Steve Webb, director of policy at Royal London, said in a release. “With the uplift that we are offering, customers will be able to retain the value of the guarantees attached to their policies whilst also enjoying the flexibility of pension freedoms. And those customers who want to keep their guaranteed annuity rate option will be free to do so.”

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In order to “protect these customers,” Royal London said it is giving them the option of exchanging the guaranteed annuity rates attached to these policies with a “substantial cash uplift.” Although the amount of the uplift will depend on the terms of the individual policy, and when it was taken out, they are expected to be in the range 40% to 80%.

Royal London also appointed an independent actuary to oversee the calculations and an initial round of contacts with affected policyholders to gauge interest in the process. The firm said that nearly 80% of policyholders affected who responded to the initial mailing said they wanted the company to proceed with the offer. It will now send letters to 30,000 customers giving them the option to make the exchange, and letting them know the amount by which their pension fund could be increased.

Policyholders who do not choose to keep their guaranteed annuity rate will have the opportunity to vote on these proposals before a final court hearing in November to sign off on the process.