This study marks the continuation of a series of survey-based research projects on pension fund governance by the authors and colleagues that stretch back over 20 years. A catalyst for this new effort was the Focusing Capital on the Long Term (FCLT) initiative launched by Dominic Barton (McKinsey) and Mark Wiseman (CPP Investment Board) in 2013.1 In a subsequent Harvard Business Review article that provided context for the FCLT initiative, they wrote: ‘If asset owners and managers are to do a better job of investing for the long-term, they need to run their organizations in a way that supports and reinforces this.’

Obviously, the quality of the governance function in asset owner organizations is critical to this “do a better job of investing for the long-term” quest. Given our prior survey experience in the governance area, we offered to update our work in support of the FCLT initiative, and at the same time, gain a better understanding of the degree to which pension funds actually practice ‘long-termism’ in investing. We sent out a survey in June 2014 to 180 CEOs (or equivalents) of major pension (and related) organizations around the world. The survey’s governance component was identical to prior surveys sent out in 1997 and 2005. Two months later we began the work of analyzing the 81 completed surveys, comparing the 2014 governance-related responses to those provided in 1997 and 2005, and interpreting the responses in the long-term investing part of the survey. This paper sets out our findings, and their implications for raising the effectiveness of the governance and investment functions of pension (and related) organizations.