The United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund, which manages USD40.6bn worth of assets, still does not have any allocation to alternative investment, more than a year after advisers recommen

The United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund, which manages USD40.6bn worth of assets, still does not have any allocation to alternative investment, more than a year after advisers recommended investing in private equity and hedge funds, according to a report in Financial News on Tuesday.

At the end of March, the fund held 57 per cent of its assets in equities, 36.8 per cent in bonds, 1.8 per cent in property and 4.4 per cent in cash. In April last year, the US firms Pension Consulting Alliance and EFI Actuaries compiled a report for the pension fund that recommended allocating up to 6 per cent of its assets in alternatives, although they noted that investing in these asset classes would require significant resource and procedural adjustments from the fund itself.

The lack of response from the UN fund is surprising, as these investment classes are easily accessible and available. However, there are signs that the UN fund may take a step towards alternative investment. Media reports earlier this year indicated that the pension fund had requested help from external investment consultants on alternatives.

Over the first quarter of the year, the fund suffered negative returns of 2.7 per cent. Perhaps now would be a good time for the fund to speed up its research.