Emmanuel Bocquet

Is the wrong question given pensions are paid from absolute, not relative returns. Since the biggest drawback of active is cost, the goal should be to obtain active at the cost of passive.

And how it relates to liabilities! Strategic asset allocation drives the vast majority of returns, so it is the most critical decision that governing bodies should make. It also means they should leave implementation to specialists that they can then monitor and challenge regularly.

Avoid them if you can. As Warren Buffet said, ‘performance comes, performance goes, fees never falter’. Be conscious of fees and only pay them if you can justify to your stakeholders the (net!) return stream they bring.

Like any investment, its inclusion should be subject to alignment to objectives. For a pension fund like us, I believe venture currently sits outside our risk appetite.