Any surprises in the Investment Consideration survey?

The Lens managed to get a copy of CAMRADATA’s Investment Consideration Survey (not an easy task in a financial services company where all data is kept under lock and key, but we managed it). The survey asked institutional investors for their views of asset classes and financial markets looking ahead this year.

We issued a challenge to colleagues down the corridor. Guess the top three talking points, we said. Everyone said Brexit, so everyone won.

Brexit was not a surprise, of course, but take a moment to think what other topics were high in the minds of investors…

That’s right: responsible investing, volatility, inflation… you got it. After all, what else have you been reading about in the asset management literature of the past 12 months? Nothing too surprising – but let’s keep reading and see.

Investors want to hear more about the effects of implementing their thinking around responsible investing. They want asset managers to help them integrate responsible investing themes into their investment decisions.

Investors want protection from market volatility and inflation, so they are searching for sources of long-term income. Real assets like property and infrastructure are becoming more popular. (These asset classes were keenly discussed at a recent CAMRADATA roundtable. More details later this month).

The survey also found that financial markets as a whole were not providing investors with much optimism. Many survey respondents were at best neutral and at worst pessimistic when asked to comment on global markets.

But there was one small surprise. It was that the majority of investors in the survey were optimistic about the emerging markets for the next 12 months.

Although EM wasn’t the most favoured asset class – it was the fifth to be truthful – it appears we can expect activity in this asset class in 2019.

Admittedly The Lens hadn’t predicted that.