Dubai a Current Concern, But Not the Most Important
By Alton Cogert

Far be it from me to surpass the excellent, though government shielded, insurance coverage of the credit default originating in Dubai. Apparently rooted in a hangover from a major business structure boom, this default does have some parallels in Western economies.

But, we should once more elevate the issue of credit default swaps and counter event threat. Worldwide, zombie banks, propped up by their local federal governments and having the tendency to survival rather than financing, are revealing excellent profits from trading. And that trading is tied to the 'threat trade' - both on and off- annual report maneuvers making use of by-products, consisting of credit default swaps.

As in the days of Lehman and Bear Stearns, investors do not have an excellent hint regarding the exposure in these instruments (direct and indirect) at these biggest of organizations. Yet, we insurance providers dutifully list every single investment and credit derivative exposure on our annual statements. Well, I presume transparency is just good for particular controlled institutions ...

Meanwhile, certainly the existing Dubai incident could be triggering a contact us to your investment manager, or at the very least a glance at the most up to date portfolio holdings. However, as we continue to state, the key to strong investment outcomes is a solid investment process. And, that consists of understanding, beforehand, how your company's financial investment process is made to deal with shocks (huge and tiny) to economic markets.

This truth is so important that I've written a book concerning it, called Uncertain Times: A Chief Financial investment Officer's Trip.

In reality, several insurers may be focusing on the financial investment manager at the expense of the financial investment procedure. David Holmes' excellent Asset Outsourcing Exchange registered a strong 64% rise in number of manager searches by insurers, this year to this day versus last year.

But, to the level these searches are replacements of financial investment supervisors, one need to ask yourself. To just what outcome?

Insurance companies truly give a benchmark for the manager and the manager commonly chooses not to wander off far from that benchmark. (You have actually possibly listened to the overused, 'we aim to strike singles, not home runs' from managers.) Keeping that technique in mind, can the manager really include big quantities of worth? The answer is an unquestionable, no.

The key to including long-term, considerable worth is boosting the investment procedure.

Think about it this way. The manager resembles the auto mechanic who could fine tune your car and keep it running well. And the financial investment procedure resembles the car. However, if you've obtained a VW Beetle, you actually do not have much of a possibility of winning the Indy 500, do you? And, if your financial investment procedure seems to be running all right to you, possibly you are merely settling for satisfactory Beetle-like efficiency?

We could tell you stories of business that understand this and have seen rather impressive, recorded enhancements in investment results straight linked to improvements in their investment procedure.

But, the extra fascinating tales, quite truthfully, are those business that only get worried when their manager 'under carries out' or they have to take care of 'disabilities'.

The 'threat trade', where any type of safety carrying credit or other danger has done quite well considering that March of this year, has buoyed the efficiency of several a financial investment manager. And, where Boards might have been really concerned about investments in Q4, 2008 and Q1, 2009, those problems have actually rather ebbed because of the 'danger trade'. Alas, that is genuinely a short sighted sight.

The inquiry all Boards should be asking currently must consist of, "exactly how will our investment procedure handle the next 'shock' to the system?" And this is a small part of a bigger check out the total financial investment process.
Exactly what should your company be concentrating on currently? Exactly how the (technician) manager executes or exactly how well your (auto) financial investment procedure is built?

As Dubai's friends in the Middle East might state, "Happy Car!"

For info concerning "Uncertain Times: A Chief Financial investment Officer's Trip", please most likely to http://bit.ly/8W2idw

Always contact a professional prior to acting upon any kind of suggestions or point of views noted in this write-up.

Alton Cogert, CFA, CPA, CAIA, President and Chief Executive Officer, established Strategic Asset Alliance (http://www.saai.com) in 1994 as the first investment consulting company that solely serves insurer.

Mr. Cogert has greater than twenty years of financial institution experience, with over half of that time in senior economic management. He is a Chartered Financial Expert, Cpa and Chartered Altenative Financial investment Analyst. Mr. Cogert holds a BS from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the University of Southern California.

Always call a specialist prior to acting upon any type of recommendations or viewpoints kept in mind in this write-up.