Newsroom
Stay informed with our latest stories, press releases, and other announcements. For media inquiries, contact Ross Parker, Director, Communications.
In the News
7 December 2017 - In a new report, FCLT Global, which advocates a long-term investment approach by pension funds and asset managers, provided 10 recommendations for setting up long-term investment mandates. The recommendations included replacing directly terminable contracts with five-year arrangements linked to a fee discount. Currently, the fee discount is often subject to the scale of the mandate. FCLT Global’s list also addressed the use of benchmarks that focused on the long term as a standard for absolute return funds.
In the News
6 December 2017 - The not-for-profit organization’s stated goal is to encourage investors, such as pension plans, to look at allocations through a longer-term lens. It brought together working groups of global institutional investors and asset managers to discuss what strategies are working, and ways to tailor investment mandates to bolster long-term success.
Incentive Alignment | Press Release
5 December 2017 - Boston, MA, December 5, 2017– FCLTGlobal, a not-for-profit organization that advocates for a longer-term focus in business and investment decision-making, has released its newest publication which presents a long-term model for drafting investment management contracts between asset owners and managers. The white paper, Institutional Investment Mandates: Anchors for Long-term Performance, discusses the status quo of such mandates and how the terms and conditions included can affect, either positively or negatively, long-term behaviors and investment partnerships. The research includes a “Top Ten” list of key components of long-term oriented mandates,...
In the News
5 December 2017 - The FCLT paper, Institutional Investment Mandates: Anchors for Long Term Performance, includes a top-10 list of recommendations for long-term mandates that covers fees, benchmarks, the term of the contract and performance reporting. It gives investors ideas for changing behaviours to better inform long-term thinking; for example, changing the frame of reference of performance reporting, and flipping the standard practice of listing short-term results ahead of longer-term outcomes.
In the News
16 November 2017 - Earnings move markets. Last month, the Nasdaq enjoyed its biggest one-day gain in a year following blowout earnings from technology giants Amazon, Google and Microsoft. However, while earnings can highlight underlying economic trends, they can also obscure them. Earnings season is often dubbed cheating season, and for good reason. Every quarter, the vast majority of companies beat low-balled estimates. Not only that, companies can use all kinds of accounting tricks – both legal and illegal – to mislead investors.
Investor-Corporate Engagement | Press Release
24 October 2017 - Boston, MA, October 24, 2017– FCLTGlobal, a not-for-profit organization that works to encourage a longer-term focus in business and investment decision-making, today published a report, Moving Beyond Quarterly Guidance: A Relic of the Past, calling into question the need for quarterly guidance to shareholders and investors. The report debunks long-held industry misconceptions about the importance of short-term earnings guidance, and argues that companies and investors should move away from this practice. Key findings from the report show: Providing quarterly forward earnings guidance (as distinct from quarterly reporting) is increasingly on a downward...
In the News
12 October 2017 - A decade to the day since the precrisis peak of U.S. stocks, it has become easier and easier for investors to take a long-term view. Those who bought on the day the S&P 500 hit its top on Oct. 9, 2007, and held on through the subsequent panic and market collapse, have more than doubled their money, including dividends.
In the News
8 June 2017 - In a 2011 article, McKinsey & Company chief Dominic Barton called on his global counterparts to adopt a longer-term approach to business planning in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007-2008. Two years later, McKinsey and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) conducted a study of more than 1,000 board members and CEOs, and found out how pervasive “quarterly capitalism” has become: More than 40 percent of those surveyed said they set business strategy using a time horizon of less than three years,...
In the News
7 June 2017 - Sarah Williamson, CEO of not-for-profit initiative Focusing Capital on the Long Term, explains why quarterly guidance should be abolished and how IROs can get insightful feedback from investors.
In the News
2 March 2017 - Schumpeter’s recent column on corporate short-termism suggests that “the solution is to prod incumbent firms to invest vast amounts and insulate their managers from investors” (February 18th). On the contrary, the solutions should be much more targeted to how capital markets really work. We are exploring two such solutions. One is rethinking the quarterly guidance process to engage managers with, rather than insulate them from, investors in their long-term strategic thinking. The second solution is to change the relationships and incentives between asset owners and fund...