There is often a disconnect between pension fund plan sponsors and the investment managers they rely on. Sometimes this is because the plan sponsor does not understand what its managers are doing sometimes it is the fund managers failing to explain themselves. Throughout Asia and Japan, underfunding problems and the need for global diversification are forcing pension funds to educate themselves.
There are a handful of plan sponsors that are among the world's most sophisticated. One of them, Osaka Gas, talked at length at a recent conference in Tokyo about its relations with its managers. Fund managers say Osaka Gas is a model in the Japanese pensions community indeed, globally and that an increasing number...
