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Institutional Investor Magazine Explores America's Pension Problem

"Michael Peltz, the Executive Editor of Institutional Investor magazine, appears on CNBC's Squawk on the Street program to talk about the glaring hole in pensions in the US."

Institutional Investor Expectations, Manager Performance, and Fund Flows

"[The authors] analyze institutional investors' expectations about the future performance of fund managers and the impact of those expectations on asset allocation decisions. [They] find that institutional investors allocate funds mainly on the basis of fund managers' past performance and of investment consultants' recommendations, but not because they extrapolate their expectations from these."

Institutional Investors and Public Pension Funds Denounce SEC's Push for Forced Arbitration

"A coalition of more than 60 major institutional investors and pension systems, collectively managing trillions of dollars in direct assets and representing over $8 trillion globally through umbrella organizations and associations, released a letter this week strongly opposing the [SEC's] unprecedented policy reversal permitting companies to include forced arbitration provisions into their corporate charters and registration statements."

Views of ESG Investing Changing Among Institutional Investors

"Institutional investors in the U.S. continue to view the application of environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles in investing more cautiously than other countries, but the percentage that reject ESG outright shrank dramatically year over year, from 51% to 34% ... Forty-three percent of institutional investors incorporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into their investing, up from 22% in 2013[.]"

Useful Information on How Institutional Investors Review Proxies

"Institutional investors reported that pay for performance alignment was the most important factor for making voting decisions. However, many investors indicated that pay-for-performance and performance measures disclosure often is hard to understand (and sometimes seems designed to obfuscate). Resist the urge to make your disclosures overly complicated."

Council of Institutional Investors Comment Letter to SEC on Proposed Pay Ratio Rules (PDF)

"The members generally agreed that the Commission has done an admirable job in proposing to implement Section 953(b) in a flexible manner that attempts to strike an appropriate balance between providing potentially useful information to investors and limiting company compliance costs.... Two of the three members were 'not comfortable' with the proposed exemption from the pay ratio disclosure requirements for emerging growth companies, smaller reporting companies, foreign private issuers, and MJDS filers .... The three members generally agreed with the SEC that, consistent with the language of Section 953(b), all employees, including non-U.S. employees, should be considered in the calculation of the median[.]"

Institutional Investors and Advisors Pursue Expanded CEO Pay Ratio Disclosure

"A group of institutional investors and advisors, cumulatively representing $3.3 trillion in assets under management and advisement, recently sent a letter to every public company included in the S&P 500 index seeking expanded CEO pay ratio disclosures in proxy statements.... The group believes that supplemental disclosure will help investors put the pay ratio information in the context of the company's overall approach to human capital management."

GAO Report: Shareholder Meetings -- Issues Relating to Firms that Advise Institutional Investors on Proxy Voting

28 pages. "GAO was asked to report on [1] potential conflicts of interest that may exist with proxy advisory firms and the steps that the [SEC] has taken to oversee these firms; [2] the factors that may impede or promote competition within the proxy advisory industry; and [3] institutional investors' use of the firms' services and the firms' potential influence on proxy vote outcomes." [GAO-07-765, published Jun. 29, 2007, released Jul. 30, 2007]

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and Institutional Investors

"[I]nstitutional investors likewise have a need to know whether a company in which they plan to invest or have already invested is exposed to potentially expensive FCPA liabilities that could destroy shareholder value.... This section addresses the core elements of the FCPA and offers action steps for any organization that does business outside the United States."

Council of Institutional Investors Overhauls Its Policy on Executive Compensation

"CII's revised policy reflects its goal of encouraging companies to simplify plan design, use defensible performance metrics that are linked to long-term company performance and clearly articulate the terms of their executive pay programs.... [S]ome of the suggested 'solutions' will likely be viewed as a bridge too far that could put some companies at a competitive disadvantage in recruiting and retaining top talent."