Conferences

Skip Halpern of IFS spoke at the annual meeting of the National Conference on Teacher Retirement in October. The title of his session was the question the conference organizers asked him to address: "Do You Need a Fiduciary Audit?"

Ed Patchett of IFS recently presented two sessions on hedge fund investing at the 2006 International Foundation of Employee Benefits Plans Conference in Hawaii. The first session was geared toward plan attorneys while the second session was for a broader audience of conference attendees. In both sessions, Mr. Patchett defined the terms "hedge funds" and "hedge fund-of-funds," presented the investment characteristics of hedge funds, and reviewed the key risks investors face when investing in the asset class.

Skip Halpern of IFS conducted a workshop on governance of public pension funds at the November conference in Beijing. Attendees included Trustees, staff and regulators of public pension funds across Asia and the U.S.

Samuel (Skip) Halpern spoke at the recent conference of the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans on the topic of "Operational Reviews/Fiduciary Audits - What to Expect." He described the Operational Review as a best practices study of a pension fund's investment program and practices, the process and steps involved in conducting such a Review, the range of subjects that may be addressed, the reasons for conducting this type of evaluation, and the concrete benefits, including reduced investment and fiduciary risk, better cost control, and greater efficiencies.

Andrew (Andy) Irving presented a session called "DoL Class Exemption 2003-39" at the January 6 program on Employee Benefits in Aspen. CO. This exemption requires use of an independent fiduciary when a plan seeks to release a party in interest from legal liability, e.g., when a plan that owns employer stock is a member of a class of plaintiff investors in that stock, settling claims against the employer for securities fraud.

Lamont (Monte) E. Tarbox participated on a panel of five consultants who each presented a forecast of long term capital markets and recommended asset allocations for trustees to consider over the coming years.

Jeanna M. Cullins presented a session on "Fiduciary Responsibilities and Ethics" at the February 8th Annual Trustee Retreat

• Edward Patchett led a roundtable discussion on Hedge Fund Investing at the IFEBP Annual Employee Benefits Conference in New Orleans on December 2nd and 3rd. The session started with discussions on the investment objectives of most hedge funds and contrasted them with "traditional" investment management. They then discussed the differences between "absolute" and "relative" return investment objectives.

Samuel (Skip) Halpern spoke on "Fiduciary Audits-What to Expect", in October. This concerned how to conduct a fiduciary audit (or Operational Review); the wide range of investment, fiduciary, operational and governance subjects involved; the practical value of such a study; and examples of the numerous public and private funds that have completed them in recent years.

Lamont (Monte) Tarbox .presented a briefing on the U.S. pension system to a visiting delegation of Australian pension fund trustees at this meeting in Los Angeles.