Issue - meetings

22.1     The Committee considered a report by Hymans Robertson on the performance of fund managers during the second quarter of 2017.

22.2     The Committee RESOLVED to agree to rebalance holdings with the transfer of funds from global equity holdings to absolute return holdings within the agreed tolerance range.

51.1     The Committee considered a report by Hymans Robertson on the performance of fund managers during the fourth quarter of 2016.

38.1     The Committee considered a report by Hymans Robertson the performance of fund managers during the third quarter of 2016.

38.2     Hymans Robertson representatives reminded the Committee that the Fund is planning to hold a Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) training day in early 2017.  This is a follow up session to the one held earlier this year.

·         Statement of Investment Beliefs

·         Private Equity

·         Investment Strategy Roadmap / potential business plan

26.1     The Committee considered reports by Hymans Robertson on:

·         The performance of fund managers during the second quarter of 2016.

·         A proposed statement of investment beliefs for the Committee

·         An update on the East Sussex Pension Fund’s private markets programme

·         A potential business plan for reviewing the Funds’ investment arrangements.

26.2     The Committee RESOLVED to:

1) agree the proposed statement of investment beliefs;

2) agree to continue to commit to new private equity funds in order to maintain the target allocation; and

3) agree the business plan for reviewing the Funds’ investment arrangements.

·         Q1 2016 monitoring report

·         Rebalancing Policy for East Sussex Pension Fund (to follow)

7.1       The Committee considered two presentations by Hymans Robertson on:

·         the performance of fund managers during the first quarter of 2016.

·         the Rebalancing Policy for East Sussex Pension Fund (ESPF).

7.3       The Committee RESOLVED to agree to the proposed rebalancing of the ESPF in accordance with the proposals presented by Hymans Robertson.

48.1     The Committee discussed the Quarterly Performance Report by Hymans Robertson updating the Committee on investment managers' performance for the Fourth Quarter of 2015.

·         Schroders Update

·         Investment Pooling and Collaboration

30.1     The Committee discussed presentations by Hymans Robertson on Investment Managers’ Performance for Third Quarter 2015, an Update on Schroder Real Estate Capital Partners, and Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) Investment Pooling.

30.2     William Bourne, Independent Pensions Advisor, declared a personal interest as the Joint Independent Local Pension Board Chair of Lancashire County Pension Fund and the London Pensions Fund Authority.

7.1       The Committee considered a report by the Chief Finance Officer providing an update on the performance of the Pension Fund investment portfolio and that of the individual managers for the quarter ending 31 March 2015.

7.2       The Chair agreed to table an updated version of the review of investment managers’ performance for the quarter ending 30 June 2015.

7.3       The Committee RESOLVED to note the contents of the report, and the detailed analysis provided by Hymans Robertson as the fund advisor.

4b.1     This item was introduced by Ola Owolabi, Head of Accounts and Pensions (OO).

4b.2     The Chair noted that, in order to fully comprehend the information in this report, Board members needed to understand how the fund benchmark is calculated. MK agreed, noting that fund performance (and hence the benchmark figures) has to be viewed relative to the fund investment strategy, since the strategy will determine the level of returns that Investment managers seek. The Fund has had a strategy of diversification and pursuing less volatile returns overall by hedging against equities – it is crucial to judge performance in the context of the objectives of the investment strategy. Additionally, there has been a recent disinvestment in equities in favour of gilts. The intention here has been to reduce risk levels by increasing holdings of low risk investments. This is fully in line with our strategy, and was recommended by Hymans as a way to ‘lock-in’ recent gains. However, this will inevitably have resulted in a lower return on investment, which needs to be understood as a positive rather than a negative, even though it may appear on face-value to indicate under-performance.

4b.3     SM commented that it would be useful for a report on Investment Manager fees and performance to include information on how performance targets are set. SM noted that she was uncomfortable about setting performance targets that are gross of fees, as this appears to offer a poor incentive.

4b.4     MK told members that the Board could talk to the fund’s independent advisors about these issues, although this would entail an additional expense. The Board has no set budget to pay for this type of training, but sensible costs would be met. The Chair noted that, given the costs involved, it was important that the Board was clear on how it wanted to use the fund’s independent advisors before meeting with them.

4b.5     In response to a query from BR, MK explained that the Hyman’s report in the Board papers was the same report that would go to 27 July Pension Committee. These reports will unavoidably focus on the previous quarter’s activities; a more up to date report would be too expensive to produce.

4b.6     There was discussion about the performance of Lazard’s, with MK telling members that there has been a performance issue here for several years.

4b.7     Members discussed their training needs. It was noted that it was unlikely that there could be shared training with the Pension Committee. Cllr Kevin Allen (KA) noted that, as a recent appointee he had not yet received any training, although he was eager to undertake some.

4b.8     The Chair noted his preference for short sharp training sessions rather than lengthy and expensive training.

4b.9     AE made the point that she was unhappy that Pension Committee members could make substantive decisions about the pension fund without necessarily having had the level of training in pension issues required of Unison representatives on the Pension Board. MK noted that the recent Government  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4