popular way of organizing the management

of sizable investment portfolios. Much of

the appeal for the concepts underpinning this

idea is a response to the shortcomings that many

investors see in the current approach to managing

institutional portfolios—especially pension funds.

As the twenty-first century began, there was significant

discontent among plan sponsors and

other institutions regarding the prevailing investment

management structure: too many people

had a role while no one had overall responsibility.

Fiduciary management came into being in response

to such problems. Seeking to reunite expertise

and responsibility, fiduciary management

tries to ensure that those who oversee managers

and consultants not only have the expertise to

do this job, but also have close enough ties to

the plan sponsor to do this job effectively.

facet of this fast-growing approach to organizing

the management of an institutional investment

portfolio. Expert author Anton van Nunen begins

by outlining the historic shift that has brought

this strategy to the attention of the investment

community, explaining the relationship between

the theory and pension plans. Pension plan managers

first set the scene for fiduciary management

by limiting the number of players who were

responsible for the funds. The theory soon spread

beyond just pension funds to attract the interest

of those who were responsible for all types of

institutional portfolios. Van Nunen defines what

is and what is not fiduciary management, details

the principal functions of a fiduciary manager,

and outlines the wide-ranging benefits of fiduciary

management. Then he illustrates fiduciary

management in practice, giving advice in terms

of asset-liability modeling and financial markets,

constructing portfolios, selecting and overseeing

investment managers, benchmarking and measuring

performance, and reporting.

Fiduciary management is a key mechanism for

ensuring that a pension fund is able to have

timely responses to changing market conditions

while continuing to be focused on enduring

investment principles. This book will help

pension fund managers as well as all financial

professionals to understand every aspect of this

increasingly important concept.

Nunen & Partners, a consulting firm serving

both institutional and individual investors, since

1998. His clients have included a number of

major institutional investors in the Netherlands

and beyond. Van Nunen has not only spelled

out the concepts of fiduciary management, he

has also implemented them at such institutions

as VGZ-IZA, a major Dutch health insurance

company, the Campina Pension Fund, and the

Yarden Insurance Company. Van Nunen earned a

PhD in economics from Tilburg University, where

he went on to spend twelve years as an assistant

professor.