In the media / citations

Clive Lipshitz has been widely cited in the general and finance media.
James McKellar, Infrastructure as a Business: The Role of Private Capital, Routledge, Sep 2023

“Canada’s pension funds are better equipped for the leverage risk because of higher funding levels, lower return targets and more-robust employee contributions, said Clive Lipshitz of Tradewind Interstate Advisors, an adviser to investment managers.”

The Wall Street Journal, Pension Funds Plunge Into Riskier Bets—Just as Markets Are Struggling, Jun 2022

“One of the studies is especially interesting, as it was conducted by Americans Clive Lipshitz and Ingo Walter”

Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, “How Peter Drucker Revolutionized Canada’s Public Sector Pension System: Lessons for Americans,” December 2022

“Each of the past few years, I’ve mentored a group of students in NYU’s Master of Science in Risk Management degree (each year, there has been a group interested in pension risk). The group in last year’s cohort decided to study the China Pillar 1 pension system. They were able to access some of the critical underlying actuarial data (which is published only in Mandarin) and used an “expert elicitation” methodology to get a series of views on what might be done to stabilize the system. Their synopsis of the situation and proposed reforms are in the attached brief article.”

Pension Pulse: China’s Ever Grand Pension Problem?, Jan 2022

“The taxpayer bears the ultimate cost of pension obligations and the taxpayer bears the ultimate long-term cost of negative [carbon] externalities… So it’s in the taxpayer’s interests for there to be transition to decarbonization” (I thank Clive for his wise insights and fully agree with him)

Pension Pulse: OMERS Commits to Net Zero by 2050, Nov 2021

“If government-owned assets come into play, U.S. public pension funds make natural investors, said Clive Lipshitz, managing partner of Tradewind Interstate Advisors, a consultant to alternative investment management firms, and author of the book? Bridging the Gaps: Public Pension Funds and Infrastructure Finance.

The Bond Buyer: Infrastructure bill features first-of-its kind P3 asset recycling requirement, Nov 2021
Stephanie Ben-Ishai: Dangerous Opportunities: The Future of Financial Institutions, Housing Policy, and Governance, University of Toronto Press, Aug 2021

“Given disparities in discount rates – and historical investment performance – either Canadian plans are under-estimating their funded status or U.S. plans are over-estimating theirs.”

Pension Pulse: Marked Improvement in US State Pension Plan Funding? Apr 2021

“One of the best policy papers I’ve read on the current need for modernizing aging US transportation infrastructure.”

Robert W. Poole, Jr., Reason Foundation, Surface Transportation News, Mar 2021

“…take the time to read an excellent paper Clive Lipshitz co-authored with Ingo Walter on what lessons US pensions can learn from Canadian pensions”

Pension Pulse: Mark Wiseman on How the World Can Learn From Canada’s Pension Mode, Feb 2021

“Fortunately, another 2020 study by Lipshitz and Walter… integrated the plan design, mission clarity, and good governance dimensions into its conclusions and found them to be definitive value drivers for the Canadian pension funds…”

Ambachtsheer, Keith. The Canadian Pension Model: Past, Present, and Future. The Journal of Portfolio Management 47 (3), Feb 2021

“I agree with Clive, the best investment officers in the world can’t close these funding gaps, they need to revamp their funding plans to introduce a shared risk model.”

Pension Pulse: CalPERS’ Former CIO on Saving America’s Public Pensions, Jan 2021

“If pension assets were to earn 7.2% a year, the $2.5 trillion held by the 25 largest U.S. pension plans as of 2018 would fall about $780 billion short of the value of the liabilities, according to a recent study from New York University’s Stern School of Business.”

The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Pandemic Puts Squeeze on Pension Plans, Dec 2020

“To engage more effectively with a pension client, it’s vital to understand the full suite of pressures facing the pension system…”

IREI: Continuing the conversation with Clive Lipshitz on Canadian and U.S. public pensions, Dec 2020

“A recent paper by Ingo Walter, professor emeritus at NYU Stern and Clive Lipshitz of Tradewind Interstate Advisors provides a deep dive into the so-called Canadian pension fund model and contrasts the process and results with those of the biggest US public pension funds.”

Naked Capitalism: Can’t Do America: Kick the Can Approach to Public Pension Fund Crisis, Even Though Canada Cleaned Up Its Mess, Nov 2020

“…there has been insufficient investment in infrastructure as an asset class… using the wrong investment vehicles and for the wrong purpose.”

Chief Investment Officer: Infrastructure Boosts Canadian Plans, Why Not US Ones? Nov 2020

“For many years, funding of pension contributions has crowded out other government expenditure including infrastructure capex and maintenance. Pension reform has been on the back burner for years.”

IREI: A conversation with Clive Lipshitz on Canadian and U.S. public pensions, Nov 2020
Pension Pulse: The Pathological Behavior of U.S. Pension Funds?, Oct 2020

” ‘Canadian pension plans are typically better funded, have more streamlined decision-making protocols, and are often able to handle deals internally without an external manager, allowing them to react more quickly to market opportunities,’ said Clive Lipshitz of Tradewind Interstate Advisors.”

The Wall Street Journal: Canadian Pensions Find Opportunity in Private Debt, Oct 2020
Pension Pulse: CPP Investments Selects First-Ever CIO, Sep 2020

“However, another new study by Clive Lipshitz and Ingo Walter… does integrate the mission clarity, good governance, plan design, and funding policy dimensions into its conclusions.”

The Ambachtsheer Letter: Future-Proofing Pensions, Sep 2020

“…there’s much to learn from the Canadian decision-makers who implemented reforms… they took political risk by forcing through changes but they were forward-thinking…. they were supported by a very strong cohort of civil servants in the various provinces…”

Benefits Canada: Canadian model offers lessons for U.S. public pensions: report, Aug 2020
Pension Pulse: The World’s Best Pensions Are Canadian, Aug 2020
National Association of State Retirement Administrators: Pension reform, Aug 2020
Pension Pulse: Can States Afford Rising Public Pension Debts? Jul 2020
Chief Investment Officer: Budding Trend: Institutional Investors Focusing Locally, Jun 2020

“Bridging the Gaps… provides empirical support for pension fund investment in infrastructure.’”

Robert W. Poole, Jr., Reason Foundation, Annual Privatization Report: Transportation Finance, May 2020
Chief Investment Officer: Institutional Investors, Asset Recycling, and the US Infrastructure Agenda, Apr 2020
Chief Investment Officer: The Untapped Potential of Infrastructure Investments’ Influence on Humanity, Feb 2020

” ‘Some GPs have begun to change their model by really seeing themselves as an extension of the LPs… this requires a much better understanding of the unique needs of each LP,’ he says.”

Inframation News: U.S. Pension Funds take the Direct Approach, Dec 2019
Jeremy Rifkin: The Green New Deal, St. Martin’s Press, Sep 2019

“Clive Lipshitz… says economies of scale should be expected from a pension fund.”

The Globe & Mail: The price of a pension: Inside CPPIB, the $3-billion-a-year operation that invests your money, Sep 2019

“‘This explains why a lot of the US pension systems are under-allocated to infrastructure relative to where they want to be,’ Lipshitz said. ‘The market is not supplying to them what they’re looking for.’ “

Inframation News: Under-Allocated Pension Plans Look to Open-End Infra Funds, Aug 2019

“According to the study, pension systems also should increase their exposure to open-end funds, which generate more returns from operating cash flows instead of capital appreciation.”

IREI: Pension funds can help bridge the U.S. infrastructure gap, study shows, Jul 2019

“The authors also suggest that US pension funds consider the asset recycling model employed in Australia”

Reason Foundation: New Research Shows Opportunities and Perils of Pension Funds Investing in Infrastructure, Jul 2019

” ‘Pension funds are looking for assets that have a long duration and generate a steady yield,’ said Clive Lipshitz, a managing partner at Tradewind Interstate Advisors.”

The Bond Buyer: Pension Funds Need State Leadership to Invest in Infrastructure, Apr 2019

” ‘Infrastructure… [is] usually incorporated with real assets because it has very similar attributes to real estate with a similar cash flow,’ Lipshitz said.”

The Bond Buyer: Pension Fund Managers Want in on Infrastructure, Feb 2019

“Stanford researchers Joe Nation, Olympia Nguyen Tulloch and Clive Lipshitz spent the past several months evaluating San Jose’s federated and public safety pension plans against those in other major cities in the Bay Area and beyond.”

San Jose Inside: Stanford Study: Rising Cost of Public Employee Pensions Eat Up San Jose’s New Tax Revenue, Nov 2017

“The attached report, issued by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research… addresses the Mayor’s request for an external review of the plans’ investment performance.”

City of San Jose, City Auditor: Supplemental Memorandum: Audit of Retirement Systems, Nov 2017