Dan Mikulskis

Guy Opperman has it backward on Pensions & Infrastructure

June 11, 2019

Reading Time: 2 minutes First published in Professional Pensions on 6th June 2019 I was disappointed to see an overly simplistic “pensions should be harnessed to…” sort of message from Guy Opperman in The Times on 22 May. It’s great to see pensions being discussed amid the wider political context we are in, but I found the sentiments, however well-intended, quite … More Guy Opperman has it backward on Pensions & Infrastructure

How Many Pizzas

May 31, 2019

Reading Time: 1 minute How many pizzas would it take to feed your investment committee? Optimal committee/team size is a great question: NEPC’s survey finds most investment committees are 7+ people, but would prefer to be 4-6. Team behavioral expert Harvard Professor Richard Hackman said optimal is 6, definitely not more than 9. Authors Sunstein & Hastie note the … More How Many Pizzas

Podcasts taking over the world

May 11, 2019

Reading Time: 2 minutes I’m not exactly ahead of the curve here talking about podcasts in 2019 (here’s an interesting blog that talks about the surprising recent rise of this relatively simple and humble medium), given it feels like almost everyone has one, or has appeared on one. However with the huge amount of stuff out there, there is … More Podcasts taking over the world

Living Longer, and Prospering

March 10, 2019

Reading Time: 4 minutes Human longevity is always somewhat of a double-edged sword for those tasked with paying a defined benefit pension: increases in healthy lifespan are of course welcome from a human perspective, but make the job of providing a pension for life that much harder. And longevity has been very hard to forecast with any accuracy: from … More Living Longer, and Prospering

An Evening with Actuaries in Belfast

February 27, 2019

Reading Time: 2 minutes I had the pleasure of being invited to present to actuarial students and local professionals at Queens’ University in Belfast on the subject of current issues in investment, and careers in investment consulting. I took the opportunity to give an overview of the global asset owner universe, talk through the portfolios of some of the … More An Evening with Actuaries in Belfast

Universal Basic Income is DB v2.0

February 24, 2019

Reading Time: 2 minutes A strange thought occurred to me the other day, hear me out on this for two seconds. Perhaps Defined Benefit Pensions are showing us a way forward in the future? I had just finished reading the excellent Stories from 2045, which as I summarise here contains many angles on the theme of managing (successfully or … More Universal Basic Income is DB v2.0

Stories from 2045

February 20, 2019

Reading Time: 2 minutes I was fortunate enough to recently read Stories from 2045 a great book of short stories from the futurist think tank The Economic Singularity Club which was founded by author & futurist Calum Chace and others to promote more thoughtful discussions about the future of jobs. The purpose of the book was to try and … More Stories from 2045

Simple, but not easy

February 8, 2019

Reading Time: 2 minutes Some simple skills I think are underrated in today’s world of work: Planning effective meetings Facilitating effective meetings Capturing actions cleanly, and following up Structuring communication clearly and effectively These things don’t get talked about much, but when you work with someone who does them well it can be literally a life-changer, and so refreshing. … More Simple, but not easy

Universal Owners: The Idea Reshaping Asset Management

January 21, 2019

Reading Time: 8 minutes Updated March 2019 Do we need to get over our definition-anxiety? Ok, so I’m not going to win a prize for insight here in 2019 by observing that consideration of ESG (Environment, Social and Governance factors) has become a big theme in the UK, it has existed for a number of years kind of on … More Universal Owners: The Idea Reshaping Asset Management

A Lot of Love for Correlation!