Last month, Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice announced that a Reform government could transform the UK Local Government Pension Scheme into a £500bn sovereign wealth fund, while scrapping defined benefit pensions for incoming civil servants. But could the LGPS actually be converted into a sovereign wealth fund?

The Net Zero Asset Managers initiative relaunched last week, but it returns at a delicate moment for asset managers navigating political pressures in the US and a more nuanced environmental, social and governance environment in Europe.

The Bank of England’s governor Andrew Bailey is among the policy makers to express bubble fears within the private credit sector, but many asset owners still see the asset class as a necessary component of their investment portfolio.

The British pension system is trying to reconfigure itself with something of a Canadian flavour, that means bigger funds, investing in private assets through in-house teams. We speak to Leandros Kalisperas, chief investment officer at the British Business Bank, about how pension funds in England and Wales can get there.

Indirect crypto exposure among Dutch companies, institutions and households has grown rapidly, with Dutch pension funds holding the largest shares. But with wariness around the asset persisting, those who have committed remain elusive.

Texas has established a new Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, administered through the Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company, making it the first US state to invest in bitcoin. We at AOX take a look at what the allocation actually looks like.

As market concentration deepens and infrastructure spending accelerates, institutional investors question whether today’s AI-driven investment returns reflect durable growth or the later stages of a crowded trade.

Ryan Boothroyd, Border to Coast Pension Partnership’s head of external management, explains to AOX how the changing macroeconomic environment since 2022 means he will start taking a different approach to selecting the global equity managers he works with.

There are 85 bank foundations in the Italian charity sector, 12 of which each hold more than €1bn in assets, and they are making efforts to move towards larger, more efficient management structures using multi-asset and strategic mandates

A proposed change to US tax regulations which could shake billions of dollars in investment assets held by sovereign wealth funds

Calpers chief investment officer Stephen Gilmore explains to AOX what stage the $563bn pension fund is at in its transition to the total portfolio approach and how it is handling some of the potential risks

The boom in demand for private credit has led to an influx of asset managers into the sector, and a growth in the number of funds available to asset owners - which is what concerns Mercer’s Niall O’Sullivan

Institutional investment is becoming increasingly polarised, with pension funds now dominating in North America while sovereign wealth funds are becoming more prominent in Europe and the Middle East. Armed with considerable resources, these investors are diving into private markets globally, including financing the energy transition.

Given the rising tide of economic nationalism, is there anything we can learn from the extent to which pensions around the globe invest in their national economies? Perhaps there is.

The use of continuation vehicles, which involve private equity managers selling expiring assets to themselves in a new package, has been soaring and some asset owners have been buying into it. What are the risks?

Two of Britain’s local government pension scheme funds explain why they felt ‘soft government pressure’ to join a pool which was not their first choice

Ivy League endowments used to follow the ‘Yale Model’ of investing heavily in private assets. But this model’s success has undermined its ability to provide good returns, which has triggered a divergence among these eight funds

Interest in asset allocation frameworks such as the total portfolio approach is gathering pace, with proponents including Calpers and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. While this enthusiasm could open the door to a larger role for active management, such strategies require governance structures and investment expertise currently only available to the largest investors

The universe of Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds is being shaken up by a new player, L’imad, which analysts say signals “the start of a supercharged private equity-style sovereign wealth fund that will proceed with a global reach”

Fraz Siddiqui, chief financial officer of the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, said the trend towards the retailisation of private assets was something asset owners would need to accept and work around