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McGill Desautels faculty members and researchers celebrated at Bravo Gala

 

McGill University hosted its annual Bravo Gala on Thursday, March 21, which honours its faculty members and researchers who have won special awards, memberships and prizes over the past year. McGill Desautels is proud to announce 14 of its faculty amongst the distinguished honourees this year. Congratulations to our deserving laureates! Full list below. #Bravo2024

Published: 21 Mar 2024

Advanced life deferred annuities can give retirees peace of mind

For people with defined contribution pension plans, longevity risk is a significant concern. You don’t want to outlive your money. The issue is compounded because today’s retirees have longer life expectancies than ever before, writes Sebastien Betermier in Benefits Canada.

Published: 14 Mar 2024

MIPC asks students to devise decumulation strategies for an inflationary environment

For its 7th edition, the 2023 McGill International Portfolio Challenge (MIPC), as part of McGill’s Sustainable Growth Initiative (SGI), gathered over 80 teams from 27 countries to address retirement challenges amidst inflation. Participants tackled the task of developing decumulation strategies for the fictional Maple Leaf Pension Plan, simulating real-world data.

Published: 19 Jan 2024

Pension funds can drive greater returns by participating more directly in value creation

Pension funds manage enormous amounts of capital, but they don’t create as much value as other players in the financial sector. Entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and private equity funds all play a more direct role in launching projects and creating value.

Published: 10 Jan 2024

Long-term investments help Canadian pension plans outperform international counterparts

Canadian pension funds have outperformed their counterparts elsewhere, and a recent study co-authored by Associate Professor of Finance Sebastien Betermier examines how they’ve accomplished this. The study analyzes four deals – in the agricultural, railway transportation, real estate development, and financial services– that diversified their holdings and enabled their success.

Published: 12 Dec 2023

More Canadians are renewing their mortgages at higher rates, as economy heads toward forecasted recession

More than 3 million Canadians will be facing mortgage renewal in the next 18 months – and with interest rates still at their highest level in years, many will face payments that are 30-40% higher. “Inflation has been off the charts for the past couple years, and when the Bank of Canada raises interest rates, it is to bring inflation down,” explains Sebastien Betermier, Associate Professor of Finance.

Published: 12 Dec 2023

Canadian pension funds divestment of private equity holdings rebalances portfolios

Canadian pension funds are strategically divesting from their private equity holdings to realign their portfolios. Recognizing the inherent lag in private equity valuations compared to publicly traded assets, the move aims to address potential overvaluations, particularly in the context of rising interest rates.

Published: 21 Nov 2023

Public pension plans in Canada and Australia achieve efficiencies through professional asset management at scale

Canada and Australia are both examples of successful pension fund management, said Prof. Sebastien Betermier in a keynote presentation to the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) Thought Leadership Conference in Cape Town, South Africa. While there are differences, both capture similar efficiencies: getting people to save money early, so they benefit from compounding.

Published: 20 Nov 2023

Alberta’s withdrawal from Canada Pension Plan means leaving one of the world’s best-managed funds

The Canada Pension Plan (CPP) launched in 1966 and pays retirees a monthly amount based on contributions deducted from their paycheques throughout their working lives. "You contribute with the understanding that when it comes your time to retire, you can expect your own steady stream of income where the risks are being managed directly by the plan," says Prof.

Published: 10 Nov 2023

Delve: How the Era of Energy Transition Is Changing Business Leadership

The global transition to net-zero requires significant changes in the way businesses operate and grow. How can business leaders successfully manage this energy transition? What are its opportunities and risks for businesses? And what role do corporate boards and investors play in overseeing and encouraging the transition?

Published: 8 Jun 2023

Celebrating excellence in teaching at Desautels

Across programs and subject areas, the Desautels Faculty of Management recognizes the vital role that teaching plays in enriching the student experience and in inspiring the next generation of leaders.

Published: 31 May 2023

The future of commercial real estate belongs to those who can meet the evolving needs of the office

Lockdowns and remote work presented unique challenges for the commercial real estate sector. Vast amounts of office space were suddenly empty as people worked from home. But the sector is rebounding. There are projects underway in cities around the world are a testament to investors’ confidence in its outlook, says Sebastien Betermier, an Associate Professor of Finance at Desautels.

Published: 23 Mar 2023

Delve: How Banks and Institutional Investment Funds Are Driving the Road to Net-Zero

One of the biggest challenges today for financial institutions is how to meet net-zero climate targets while achieving high returns on investment and satisfying the needs of various stakeholders. What does the road to net-zero look like in the realm of long-term investment, who are the players, and how should the inevitable roadblocks be overcome?

Published: 5 Jan 2023

Crypto’s impressive returns led institutional investors to consider unconventional investments

Cryptocurrencies have always been volatile, but they have also generated some very impressive returns. Even large pension funds got in on the action, and some of them have been burned. By investing in the crypto exchange FTX, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) hoped to avoid the risk of investing in individual cryptocurrencies. But that backfired spectacularly when FTX collapsed, and OTPP recently wrote down its entire $95 million (USD) investment.

Published: 2 Dec 2022

A place to call home trumps portfolio diversification for some investors

Many households are heavily, or even exclusively, invested in real estate. That’s a lot of money to have tied up in a single type of investment, but people don’t think of houses like other investments, according to research from Associate Professor Sebastien Betermier.

Published: 14 Nov 2022

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