Fyi, see the email from Anders below.  He’s a very interesting guy.

Also, fyi, Chuck and I have been invited on short notice to attend an awards dinner tonight at the National Labor College; the College Trustees are honoring Mark Ayers, President of the National Building Trades.  There is a very good chance we will see Jim Gentile there as well as several Union Presidents.  We’ll let you know if anything comes up about the Guardian issue.

Dear Mike & Chuck,

It was a pleasure meeting with you at the Rosemont Seneca dinner last week. IPM has only worked with Rosemont Seneca for a few months, and this was my first appearance at one of their dinners – hence I treated it very much as a learning experience. I found the discussion at the table quite interesting since it gave me new insights into the realities experienced by the people that you advise funds. To say that they face some serious challenges is probably an understatement!

Most European pension funds are managed rather differently, structurally, from the way many, if not most, at least by number of funds, US pension funds appear to operate. The typical pension fund in Europe is designed to provide pensions based on the principle of defined benefits, they are organized, typically, as either single company (relatively rare) or as industry (trade) wide funds, and their management is based on a board of trustees that oversee a professional investment organization. Another phenomenon that has become relatively common is that of fiduciary management; i.e. the fund sponsor(s) or the board of trustees outsource the management of the fund to fiduciary managers (Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and quite a few others have big operations in this area).

Whether the differences in organizational structure means much in the end is hard to say, and I have certainly not studied the issue close enough to be able to draw conclusions at this time. However, based on independent research (by, e.g., the likes of Keith Ambachtsheer http://www.kpa-advisory.com/index.html ) it would appear that one of the more decisive factors for successful management of pension funds quite simply is size; scale of operations.

This means, of course, that the reality for smaller pension funds per definition becomes challenging, even in the best of times. How to structure the asset mix? How to implement it? What managers to choose? These and many more questions require not only experience, but also resources. Hence I believe that dinners and networking like what is offered by the network formed by your company, Rosemont Seneca, Gray & Company, and all participants at dinners and other events is extremely valuable as they offer the opportunity to meet and discuss with peers and experts who can bring valuable insights.

Speaking for IPM we are grateful to be offered this opportunity to join such an interesting network, and I hope that we over time will get to know each other. I also hope that I over time will learn so much about what the people you advise do and how they do it to allow me to contribute to the success of their funds.

I look forward to seeing you again, and would like to stress that if you have any questions at all you should feel free to contact me directly, whether they are related to what IPM does specifically or questions of a more general nature.

Kind regards,

Anders Lindell

IPM Informed Portfolio Management

S/B:  +46 8 20 19 29

Mob:  +46 708 20 19 29

Fax: +46 8 50 68 59 53

www.ipm.se

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