5:00 - 6:30 p.m.

6:00 - 8:30 p.m.

Presentation rehearsals in the Georgian Ballroom.

Reception, registration and light buffet dinner
Please join us for an informal reception in the Atrium.

Breakfast in the Tiara Dining Room

Opening Remarks

Session One - Keynote speech

Private Equity Performance: Returns, Persistence and Capital Flows
[Presentation only available at conference]
What are private equity returns, and do they beat overall equity returns? Are there such things as good general partners (GP), and do they persist or continually outperform? How does performance affect GP survival and future capital raising? What implications do the results have for private equity going forward?
Steven Kaplan, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business

Break

Session Two – The Evolution of Alternatives
An overview of developments in alternative investing, popular hedge fund management styles, and who’s investing in what, and how.

Moving from Alternative to Mainstream?
[Download Presentation (1.7MB)]
Canadian pension plans have been window-shoppers in the alternative investment marketplace for some time, but more are now becoming actual buyers. This session will review recent changes in exposure of large plans to alternative investment vehicles, discuss which vehicles have been of greatest interest, and look at what new vehicles are on the horizon.
Damon Williams, Aon Consulting

Pitfalls in Hedge Fund Risk Management
[Download Presentation (529K)]
More investors are considering hedge funds but may actually know very little about the risk profile of this asset class. To ensure their risk budget is being appropriately allocated to various hedge funds, they need to understand some of the pitfalls, specifically: separating alpha from beta; the impact of liquidity on optimal risk allocation; hidden market exposure; whether to use funds of funds or individual funds, and; hidden fees on market returns.
Dominic Clermont, TD Asset Management

Designated Respondents:
1. Marc Poupart, Hudson's Bay Company
2. Gayle McDade, City of Regina

Coffee break and speaker photos

Session Three – Practical Pointers for Accessing Alternatives
Two veterans of the alternative investment industry share their experiences.

Tales From The Trenches: A Manager’s View
[Download Presentation (645K)]
If markets are sufficiently efficient that few traditional managers consistently add value, how can hedge fund managers do better? Relying on the speaker’s experience as an academic, a manager of a hedge fund, a pension fund manager invested in alternatives and manager of a fund of hedge funds, this presentation offers interesting evidence and a broad outlook.
Jerry Baesel, Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners

Investment and Manager Selection
[Download Presentation (594K)]
What happens next after you've made the decision to fund an alternative strategy? What are the hurdles to implementation? Based on a case study of a new hedge fund-of-funds mandate, this presentation offers techniques to refine and focus your manager search criteria, narrow the field of choices, avoid legal pitfalls and contract surprises, and get your committee comfortable with making a final selection.
Larry Johnson, Advisor to Institutional Investors

Designated respondents:
1. Bruce Grantier, Scotiabank
2. Bill Forbes, Queen's University

12:30 - 1:00 p.m.

1:00 - 2:00 p.m.

2:00 - 3:15 p.m.

Group Photo

Lunch in the Tiara Dining Room

Session Four – Evaluating Hedge Funds
It’s clear that hedge funds are not like other pooled investment funds. What intricacies and peculiarities do plan sponsors need to consider when evaluating hedge fund performance? What forms can hedge funds take?

Evaluating Hedge Fund Managers
[Download Presentation (254K)]
In many hedge fund strategies, timing and market knowledge are all-important. While some aspects of hedge fund management can be automated, the human element of manager skill is still required to make crucial judgment calls. This presentation will look at three common strategies—long/short equity, hedged convertibles and risk arbitrage—and look at the dimension manager skill brings to them.
Mike Jawor, Glenwood Capital Investments, L.L.C.

Hedge Fund Indexing: What Is Going On Here?
[Download Presentation (480K)]
Four well-known index providers for absolute return strategies introduced investable index funds. Is this simply an attempt to garner a piece of the lucrative fees by offering funds of funds under inappropriate branding? What is the logic, and is it being forced to fit a mold that will appeal to institutional investors? Are institutional investors being set up for disappointments that may ultimately tarnish the use of hedge funds in their asset allocation?
Tris Lett, RBC Financial Group

Designated respondents:
1. David Finstad, Alberta Revenue
2. Gerry Wahl, Teck Cominco Limited

Shuttle departs for Hillebrand Winery (please meet in hotel lobby).

Cocktail reception and wine tasting at Hillebrand

Dinner

First shuttle departs for Queen's Landing

Breakfast in the Tiara Dining Room

Session Five – Alternatives Among Alternatives
New thinking on alternative investments and where they can fit into an institutional portfolio mix.

Managed Futures: The Alternative Alternative
[Download Presentation (1.1MB)]
Often overlooked and misunderstood, managed futures are one of the most effective diversifiers available. Adding managed futures to a traditional portfolio can reduce portfolio standard deviation further and faster than hedge funds, without undesirable side effects on skew and kurtosis. With other traits including liquidity, transparency, inflation sensitivity and negative correlation to falling equity markets, they are a natural complement to a hedge fund allocation.
Roland Austrup, Integrated Asset Management

Making Alternative Investments Work: Real Estate
[Download Presentation (700K)]
As an alternative product to real estate equity and bonds, a debt portfolio comprising various real estate financing instruments can be offered to small and medium-sized pension plans that can't afford their own underwriting teams, but want the return of an instrument offering lower risk than equity but more value than fixed income.
André Collin, CDP Capital

Designated respondents:
1. Dan Foster, United Church of Canada
2. Larry Johnson, Advisor to Institutional Investors

9:15 - 9:45 a.m.

9:45 - 11:00 a.m.

Coffee break

Session Six – Getting More Mileage with Overlays
Overlaying your core strategy with a supporting strategy and asset mix can improve your chances for positive returns.

Overlays: Their Implementation and Use in Small, Medium and Large Pension Plans
[Download Presentation (550K)]
The benefits of separating alpha from beta and an increased desire to transport alpha to an entire portfolio have led to new and innovative overlay strategies. This session offers an overview of the evolution of overlay strategies from two asset class decisions to global multi-asset class and multi-manager implementation strategies. Also covered will be the benefits of overlays and different implementation approaches for different plan sizes.
James Norman, Deutsche Asset Management

Currency Overlays and Hedge Funds
[Download Presentation (417K)]
Within the world of overlays, currency overlay can provide one of the best risk-return profiles, with one of the lowest capital commitments of any strategy. When constructing a currency overlay program, what issues should a fund consider? This presentation will look at the issues and provide insight into the answers.
Dori Levanoni, First Quadrant/YMG Capital Management

Designated respondents:
1. Lawrence Newhook, OMERS
2. Carlo Novati, Ontario Power Generation

11:00 - 11:15 a.m.

11:15 - 12:30 p.m.

Coffee break

Session Seven – Diversification and Risk
With an increasing variety of alternative investment vehicles available, reducing risk through diversification has become less complicated. This session will offer tips and tools for managing the risk of alternative investments.

Hedge Funds: Risk Analysis and Capital Adequacy
[Download Presentation (653K)]
This presentation examines the risk characteristics and capital adequacy of hedge funds using Value-at-Risk (based on Extreme Value Theory) as the criterion for measuring risk and estimating capital requirements. Using extensive data on nearly 1,500 live and dead hedge funds, the presentation finds that the vast majority of funds are adequately capitalized.
Bing Liang, University of Massachusetts

The Trader's Option: The Long and Short of Volatility
[Download Presentation (492K)]
A market neutral hedge still has exposure to variables other than market direction, such as volatility and credit spreads. It is essential to understand the nature of these exposures since they can introduce significant risks. The purpose of this discussion will be to illustrate these risks in a very practical way and to provide a useful framework to discuss them with potential hedge fund managers.
Tom Higgins, Maple Financial Alternative Investments

Designated respondents:
1. Dr. Bill Rentz, University of Ottawa
2. Tony Lennie, Victoria University in the University of Toronto

Alternative investments “Crossfire Lunch” with plan sponsors and service providers [Download Presentation (581K)]
Here’s your chance to anonymously ask the tough questions you wouldn’t dare to in person! To cap this year’s conference, we present a “Crossfire”-style session in which plan sponsors will submit queries for their money managers and service providers, and vice-versa. Submissions will be taken ahead of the conference, and the CIR crew will come armed with your questions.

1:45 - 2:00 p.m.

2:00 - 3:00 p.m.

Closing remarks

Closing reception