This content is for institutional investors and for information purposes only. It does not contain investment, financial, legal, tax or any other advice and should not be relied upon for this purpose. The materials are not tailored to your particular personal and/or financial situation. If you require advice based on your specific circumstances, you should contact a professional adviser. Opinions expressed are those of the speakers as of the date of the recording, are subject to change without notice and do not necessarily reflect Mercer’s opinions.
Latest episodes
Despite the challenging macroeconomic backdrop, there may be opportunities within Real Estate to gain exposure to trends shaping the future such as affordable housing.
Zeenat Patel, Alternative Investments Director at Mercer is joined by Hannah Marshall, who is responsible for CBRE's Pan-European Residential Impact Strategies and Anne Koeman-Sharapova who leads Mercer’s efforts in Real Estate investment and Due Diligence in Europe and the UK to discuss.
Now, more than ever, investors are seeking to address systemic imbalances by increasing diversity within their organisations and boosting DEI with their investment portfolios.
To explore how both investors and managers are approaching this, Alexa Shanks, Head of Intermediary Relationships, Mercer UK is joined by Stephen Deane, Portfolio Manager and Partner at Skerryvore Asset Management and Terrance Jones, Manager Research, Mercer US to discuss.
Nature as an ESG theme is rising into prominence and the link between nature and investors’ climate strategies is becoming clearer.
In this episode, Andrew Lilley, Sustainable Investment Head, Continental Europe is joined by Kate Brett, Global Intellectual Capital Lead for Sustainable Investment and Sarika Goel, Head of Sustainable Investment Manager Research to explore the market developments and trends for nature as well as the possible actions for investors today.
Previous episodes
February 2023
2022 was not a year for bond investors - but with inflation beginning to roll over, a strong start to the year, and bonds now offering the levels of income we haven’t seen in 20 years, 2023 looks far more optimistic.
Aisling Doherty, Senior Fixed Income Portfolio Manager at Mercer, is joined by Ella Hoxha, Senior Investment Manager, Pictet Asset Management and Samantha Milner, Head of U.S. Liquid Credit, Ares Management to discuss the outlook across bond markets for the year ahead, and how best to position portfolios to take advantage of the income and returns on offer.
February 2023
2022 will go down in history as unpredictable and unprecedented. It started with a lot of optimism, then geopolitical unrest began, inflation took off, markets sold off and the era of cheap money effectively ended.
To make sense of it all, Rachel Volynsky, CIO of Canada and Global Chair of Equities is joined by Rupert Watson, Head of Asset Allocation, Europe and Cameron Systermans, Head of Asset Allocation, Asia.
December 2022
Inge West, Sustainable Investment Specialist in Mercer’s Investment Solutions team is joined by Helga Birgden, Global Chair on Sustainable Investment at Mercer and John Green, Global Chief Commercial Officer of Ninety One, to explore how asset managers are supporting the climate transition and gain practical insights on how global capital can be harnessed to target local climate challenges.
We recorded this episode as a part of a podcast series on the occasion of COP27. Each episode illustrates the breadth and depth of Marsh McLennan’s climate capabilities. The issues addressed throughout the series include investment transition, the insurance sector’s role in climate adaption, communities and businesses’ exposure to physical risks, and how companies need to address the inextricable link between climate and nature.
Find more information about how Mercer, Marsh and other Marsh McLennan businesses will be addressing these issues at COP27 and beyond, visit https://www.marshmclennan.com/pages/climate-hub.html
December 2022
Max Messervy Head of Sustainable Investment, Americas is joined by Rich Nuzum, Executive Director, Investments, Global Chief Investment Strategist and Cara Williams, Global Head of ESG and Sustainability, Wealth Management and Multinational Client Lead for Wealth to reflect on what inspired them most at COP27. They also share the key themes that emerged while in Egypt and the lessons that institutional investors should take away following the outcomes at COP27.
December 2022
In this episode, Mercer colleagues and special guest Urs Bolt, WealthTech Expert, come together to discuss the key findings from the 2022 global wealth management investment survey as well as the possible action points to help wealth managers around the world take the next step on their client and growth journey.
November 2022
As 2022 comes to a close, insurance companies are facing significant price losses across their portfolios, particularly within long-duration fixed income. On the horizon are the risks of a global recession, peaking fundamentals, persistent inflation and energy crises, particularly in Europe.
We recently surveyed the insurance market globally to find out what their key concerns, challenges and opportunities are within their investment portfolios and how they plan to tackle these. With these findings in mind we have produced what we believe should be the top considerations for insurers in 2023.
To discuss the findings and the considerations, Colin Tipping, Global Head of Insurance Solutions is joined by Eryn Bacewich from the US team and William Gibbons from the UK/Europe team.
November 2022
Where are we now as we reach the end of 2022? Economies have overheated and have begun slowing down, with some potentially in recession already. Are we there yet? Will monetary tightening lead to a deep recession?
Samantha Davidson US OCIO Leader is joined by Rupert Watson, Head of Asset Allocation, Europe and Anthony Brown, Director of Capital markets in the US at Mercer to explore.
November 2022
2022 will certainly be remembered as momentous, and it may take some time to fully understand the ramifications of the events that occurred this year. Any of these events individually would likely have had a profound impact on markets, both public and private. However, in combination, these events, along with other relevant factors, have certainly pulled the rug out from under markets.
Billy Charlton, Global Head of Private Markets Data Analytics and Research is joined by Amarik Ubhi, Global Head of Infrastructure and David Scopelliti, Global Head of Private Debt to discuss how these significant events are affecting various private market segments and what we expect their ramifications to be in 2023.
November 2022
2022 brought a combination of interconnected challenges for all investors including endowments and foundations, from geopolitical conflicts to high inflation, supply chain problems to financial market volatility.
In this episode, Cori Trautvetter is joined by Gilles Lavoie and Gareth Donegan to explore what we believe are the top considerations for endowments and foundations in 2023. They also explore the approaches that could support endowments and foundations in navigating through them to achieve long-term success, while managing short-term disruptions.
November 2022
The past decade was one of the best on record for traditional 60/40 portfolios, but a sharp rise in macroeconomic volatility caused this period of success to come to an abrupt halt.
To explore what effect this has had on financial intermediaries globally, Conor Power is joined by Gregg Sommer and Adeline Tan as they also discuss what we believe are the top considerations for financial intermediaries as we transition into 2023.
November 2022
This episode seeks to provide an overview of the insurance industry’s role in advancing climate resilience, with a particular focus on de-risking, funding and incentivizing ex-ante pre-event climate risk reduction and adaptation measures. It also explores the exciting new initiative being pursued by the United Nations’ Race to Resilience unit to accelerate and scale those efforts.
Leading the discussion is Francis Bouchard, the Managing Director for Climate for Marsh McLennan’s Advantage unit, who is joined by Dr. Swenja Surminski, Managing Director, Climate, Marsh McLennan – and a long-time Peruvian climate negotiator and UN Resilience Hub official Jorge Gastelumendi.
November 2022
We have seen significant upheaval in global markets in the last twelve months, with a combination of the pandemic recovery, regional conflict, supply chain challenges and technological advancements having a profound impact on the world around us.
The impact of these events are similar to recent history, and allows us to draw on these experiences and adapt portfolios to the current landscape.
In this episode, Jo Holden, Global Head of Investment Research speaks with Nick White, Global Strategic Research Director and Matt Scott, Senior Investment Research Specialist, on the themes and opportunities we believe investors should consider in their decision-making in 2023 and beyond.
November 2022
The blocking of the Suez Canal in May, 2021 demonstrated the vulnerability of global supply chains to disruptions to the world's, canals and waterways. The just in time nature of shipping means that there is limited redundancy, and these kinds of routes become pressure points for cascading risk. With increasing incidents of disruptive weather events driven by climate change, greater focus needs to be given to understanding these potential critical points of failure.
Nicholas Faull, Head of Climate and Sustainability, Risk and Innovation at Marsh is joined by colleagues Dr. Bev. Adams, Head of Climate and Catastrophe Resilience based in the UK and Scott Williams, ESG Coordinating Director for the Middle Eastern Africa region to explore the importance of this case study.
November 2022
In this episode, Rachel Elwell, CEO of Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, discusses their journey to achieve net zero by 2050 with Mercer Research Heads, Rich Dell and Jo Holden. They also explore how to overcome some of the concerns around reaching a 1.5-degree world and how achieving net zero can potentially produce better investment outcomes.
October 2022
Wealth managers face a combination of issues as global markets enter yet another period of uncertainty while their clients demand sustainable returns – so how are they meeting these challenges?
In this episode, Mercer colleagues and special guests joined us to discuss the findings from the 2022 global wealth management investment survey as well as the possible action points to help wealth managers around the world take the next step on their client and growth journey.
October 2022
Evolution is change, and while change might be continuous, its pace may vary over time. The private markets investment landscape has certainly changed over the years since its beginning in the 1940s and has grown to become a ten trillion US dollar industry.
To discuss the evolution we have seen over the years Zeenat Patel is joined by Claudia Zeisberger, professor of entrepreneurship and family enterprise at INSEAD and founder of the Global Private Equity Initiative and Billy Charlton, Mercer’s global head of private markets, analytics and research .
Register to hear more from Claudia and Billy at the Mercer annual Alternatives Conference here
October 2022
MIn this episode, Marg Franklin, President and CEO of the CFA Institute unpacks the 2022 Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index with lead author David Knox, a Senior Partner at Mercer.
Throughout, they explore the results of year’s index and discuss the significant challenges and important changes to the pension industry in the last year.
September 2022
Mercer’s Damien Davis is joined by Rebecca Myatt, a Portfolio Manager with First Sentier Investors and Indira Sabitova, a Portfolio Manager with Mercer to explore both the potential benefits of listed infrastructure and what the future holds for the asset class.
September 2022
The fear of recession is dominating everyone's mind-set at the moment. The global economy has been slowing and is likely to continue to do so on the back of high commodity prices, rising interest rates and tightening financial conditions more or less everywhere with China being the notable exception.
Central Banks are thought to have underestimated inflation expectations and are increasing rates quite aggressively. Where they are facing an economic cycle that differs from the past, will they get it right and what’s the cost if they don’t?
September 2022
In this episode Vanessa Hodge, Mercer UK’s Sustainability Integration Lead is joined by Ashleigh Morris, CEO and co-founder of Coreo and Jillian Reid, Partner in Mercer’s global Sustainable Investment Team to discuss their recent Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC) discussion paper for investors on the circular economy. Also joining the conversation is Jamie Butterworth, who is a Partner at Circularity Capital, a specialist private equity firm providing access to investment opportunities created by the circular economy.
Africa
