December 2020-January 2021
Global core real estate as
a strategic portfolio allocation
Investors are currently facing several challenges—lower expected total return, market concentration and a lack of stable income—an allocation to core real assets can help alleviate these issues.

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When portfolios don't deliver outcomes as expected, the number one questions is 'Why?'
Pensions and other institutional investors are struggling with portfolio underperformance and outcomes that differ from intended results. If they understand why this happens, they can adapt their investment approaches to improve risk-adjusted performance. The Risk Report from Northern Trust Asset Management offers insights into this challenge. Michael Hunstad, Ph.D., head of quantitative strategies, answers some questions about the findings from his team’s research.

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Convergence: 5 growth
themes shaping the future
Pensions and other institutional investors are struggling with portfolio underperformance and outcomes that differ from intended results. If they understand why this happens, they can adapt their investment approaches to improve risk-adjusted performance. The Risk Report from Northern Trust Asset Management offers insights into this challenge. Michael Hunstad, Ph.D., head of quantitative strategies, answers some questions about the findings from his team’s research.

www.texpers.blogspot.com
Intangible assets provide
tangible defenses for equities
Defensive equities are usually found in sectors that have withstood market shocks, such as utilities and real estate. But as COVID-19 shakes up investment conventions, companies with intangible assets are being more appreciated for their volatility cushion.

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Lower carbon emissions are not going away
The COVID-19 pandemic has meaningfully hit most countries in the world, bringing with it a toll on human lives and livelihoods. As governments mitigate the public health crisis and support economies through monetary and fiscal policy, infrastructure investment as a means of stimulus will rightly focus on smaller projects aimed at getting money into various smaller communities and regional centers.

Yet the need to lower carbon emissions is not going away; nor is the importance of upgrading and building new infrastructure to achieve lower emissions targets. And part of the world’s response to the pandemic, increasing the urgency of considering the needs of all stakeholders in planning business operations, also looks to be a positive for infrastructure’s outlook.

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The predictable Japanification of U.S. corporates
‘Japanification’ is a loose term to explain the fact that many of the challenges that face economies of the developed world today were first present in Japan twenty years ago. As weak growth, ever‑lower interest rates and negative bond yields have spread to the rest of the world, Japan has become the lens through which markets view these economies.

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Pandemic impacts
infrastructure sectors differently
Infrastructure is a defensive asset class and so tends to perform relatively well in difficult economic times. But the COVID-19 pandemic has had very different effects on various infrastructure sectors. Some, such as utilities, have seen a small and temporary drop in demand in the geographies most acutely affected by the virus. Others, such as telecommunications and oil storage, have actually benefited from the crisis with rising demand. At the other end of the spectrum, air travel and airports have experienced significant disruption.

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How job loss and wage stagnation are creating demand for multifamily housing
Even before the pandemic, wages were a hot topic for many Americans. With cost of living, particularly in America’s largest cities, skyrocketing there were already increasing concerns about the amount of affordable places to live based on wage rates across the country. Many were struggling to make ends meet even before COVID shut down entire industries, as those working full time earning minimum wage couldn’t afford a one bedroom apartment anywhere in the U.S. Now, with the significant unemployment caused by the pandemic, there’s a large need for affordable rental properties nationwide, but especially in the Sun Belt, where renters are flocking.

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4 benefits of advertising with TEXPERS
Advisor, Consultant, and Vendor members of TEXPERS can get their brands in front of the decision-makers most interested in their services and products. TEXPERS offers an advertising program to fit most strategic marketing needs.

Sponsors
TEXPERS | 713-622-8018 | texpers@texpers.org | www.texpers.org
About Us 
The Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems (TEXPERS) is a statewide voluntary nonprofit association that provides education and legislative advisory services to the trustees, administrators, professional service providers and employee groups that manage the retirement money of police, firefighters, municipal and district employees in cities across Texas.