Insights and best practices from global asset owners | part 1

In part 1 of this episode, we explore the Global Asset Owner Peer Study on best practices conducted by the Thinking Ahead Institute, in partnership with the Future Fund. With insights from 26 major funds managing over $6 trillion, the study explores emerging trends, challenges, and best practices in asset ownership.

Join us for expert insights from Kristin Magnusson Bernard, Chief Executive Officer of AP1 and study participant, and Roger Urwin, Co-founder of the Thinking Ahead Institute and chief architect of the study. Tune in to gain valuable perspectives from industry leaders on navigating the future of investments in an increasingly complex world.

And keep an ear out for part 2 of this episode, out in October.

Given the ever-changing environment we’re in, I think a lot about our people. How will they find the energy to stay curious, to stay the course, to constantly learn, to constantly evaluate what they do? So, we keep executing our strategy, but we never, ever get too set in our ways. Because there is, really, this balance between staying the course and adapting as you go.

Kristin Magnusson Bernard, Chief Executive Officer, AP1

In this study, we focused more on the organisational alpha rather than the portfolio alpha. Obviously, we looked into asset allocation trends and many dimensions of what’s in the portfolio. But we were more interested in how the organisation is configured and if it is fit for this increasingly challenging environment.

Roger Urwin, Co-founder, Thinking Ahead Institute

Related pages

Summary report: Global Asset Owner Peer Study Report
Virtual event series: Systems Curriculum

Research hub: Global Asset Owner Peer Study on best practices
Press release: World’s largest investors increasingly concerned on ‘systemic risks’
Event: Exchange+: TAI & Future Fund Global Asset Owner Peer Study summit on beliefs and best practices



More Episodes

  • Episode 6
  • September 24, 2026
  • Is AI your next thinking partner? | IFM Investors

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly moving from a productivity tool to a strategic capability for investors. But its true potential may lie in helping investment teams make better decisions, challenge assumptions and consider a broader range of possibilities.

  • Episode 5
  • August 3, 2026
  • The human edge | Spellbound

Join us as we speak to Rio StedFord, St. James’s Place, about how the wealth industry is transforming.

  • Episode 4
  • June 25, 2026
  • The rise of climate physical risk | WTW

This episode explores climate physical risk — the floods, heat and extreme weather events already affecting assets, operations and portfolios today. Moving beyond long-term transition narratives, we look at how these risks are showing up in real investment decisions right now, and what it takes to understand and act on them.

  • Episode 3
  • May 26, 2026
  • Inside Middle East mega funds | CAIA Association

We turn our focus to the Middle East – a region rising up the ranks of global capital despite ongoing tensions. Drawing on our latest Asset Owner 100 research, we explore the Middle East as one of five global asset clusters, where leading sovereign wealth funds are moving beyond silos and thinking more holistically about capital, risk and opportunity.

  • Episode 2
  • April 24, 2026
  • Power, politics and portfolios | Jupiter

Markets like certainty. Geopolitics offers anything but. This episode explores why investors might be getting geopolitical risk wrong, how a shifting world order is changing markets, and what a more adaptive approach to risk could look like.