Achieving Investment Excellence

CHAPTER 14Achieving Investment Excellence

Key Take Aways

Congratulations! You have almost finished the book. The only thing left is to effectively implement the lessons discussed in the previous five parts. They have provided you with insights about the activities that contribute to excellence. To summarize, the five parts are (i) Pension Funds: Understanding the Role, Shaping the Mission; (ii) Designing the Process; (iii) Implementing the Investments; (iv) Organizing the Board; and (v) Learning, Adapting and Improving.

This chapter is about moving your pension fund towards investment excellence. After reading this book, you will know the activities that contribute to excellence; and you will be able to identify the key differences between the levels of excellence.

What has to be done in order to start moving is essentially quite simple. You have to understand and accept where you stand now as a pension fund, and you have to know where you want to go to best serve the future needs of your participants. Subsequently, you have to define sensible steps to get there and you then have to take them. How to do this successfully is less straightforward. There are hurdles to overcome: How do you make sure the goal is one that participants share, how do you arrange the necessary governance budget of the board in terms of time and skill, and who will actually lead the process? Along ...