The 27th SUERF Colloquium in Munich in June 2008: New Trends in Asset Management: Exploring the Implications was already topical in the Summer of 2008. The subsequent dramatic events in the Autumn of 2008 made the presentations in Munich even more relevant to investors and bankers that want to...

Is the asset management sector a source of financial instability? This paper contributes to the debate by performing a macroprudential stress test in order to quantify systemic risks in the mutual fund sector. For this purpose we include the welldocumented flow-performance relationship as an...

Using a unique dataset on the sectoral ownership structure of euro area equity mutual funds, we study how different investor groups contribute to the negative performance externality from large outflows. Investment funds, as holders of mutual funds, are the main contributors to the flow...

Financial provision for old age is a serious issue. This paper therefore begins by outlining the pension situation in Germany, arriving at the conclusion that, as matters stand at present, none of the three "pillars" of pension provision - state and occupational pensions and private pension...

The investment in commodities is starting to be more important during the last years. The paper describes the characteristics of financially important commodities. In many cases a passive investment in an index is most suitable. As the GSCI is found to be the most important, its underlying...

This paper shows that revenues from a sample of publicly traded US asset management companies carry substantial market risks. Not only does this challenge the academic risk management literature about the predominance of operative risks in asset management. It also is at odds with current...

For savers, the quality of an investment is measured by the efficiency with which it defers purchasing power to the future. This efficiency can in turn be measured by the real rate of return after tax (discounting for inflation) obtained on the investment.Two main factors affect the real rate of...

This study analyzes the responses to a representative survey of wealth advisors on private wealth management practices, and compares the advisors' views to academic research in household finance. This study demonstrates that many wealth managers do not apply novel insights proposed by financial...

This paper addresses management of sovereign wealth from the perspective of the theory of contingent claims. Starting with the sovereign's balance sheet, we frame sovereign fund management as an asset-liability management (ALM) problem, covering all public entities and taking explicit account of...

Open-end mutual funds face redemptions by investors, but the sale of the underlying assets depends on the portfolio decision of asset managers. If asset managers use their cash holding as a buffer to meet redemptions, they can mitigate fire sales of the underlying asset. If they hoard cash in...