Webinars & recordings

Our top priority is supporting our clients' needs and keeping you up to date on the opportunities and challenges facing investors in the current market environment.

As the markets adjust to the current economic reality, we have seen extreme levels of market volatility. We expect this market volatility to continue for some time and believe it's critical to provide you with timely, informative information to help you effectively navigate the environment.

When available, join us for a series of live webinars, where experts from across the industry share their perspectives, address your key concerns, and answer your questions. Our recorded sessions are available for you to watch on-demand.

Upcoming webinar

On-demand video recordings

What China's economy means for institutional investors

Held: Tuesday, November 14
40 minutes

In our discussion on the Chinese economy, what's likely in the store for its future, and how it can affect institutional investors, our speakers discussed how:

• China's economy has disappointed most expectations for 2023. We explored the key challenges that their economy has faced and how the outlook for 2024 is looking.
• China's need to rebalance from investment to consumption is coming when tensions with the U.S. are elevated, which could create continued volatility.
• Although pessimistic commentary about China's long-term outlook is increasing, we believe China does have the levers to alleviate some key challenges.

The energy transition and what it means for institutional investors

Held: October 24, 2023
59 minutes

How well do you understand the complexities of the transition to new energy? Who will the winners and losers be? Which sectors will benefit? Which will struggle? How will the transition intersect with growth, inflation and other macro trends? How will this change the backdrop for the way we all invest?

We've spent all of 2023 digging into this topic and the report findings are sure to surprise you. And we’ll save time for your most provocative questions.

Challenges to consider:

• The global economy is still overwhelmingly powered by fossil fuels, with over 80% of primary energy sourced from coal, oil, and gas as of 2021.
• Achieving net zero by 2050 would be a herculean task. This energy transition would need to be two times faster than the shifts towards coal, oil, and gas in the last 200 years.
• A slow transition would expose investors to "physical" risks. The most pressing physical risk for investors is agriculture. Corn could see yields fall 20% by the end of the century in a severe warming scenario. But wheat yields could rise.
• A fast transition would expose investors to large "transition" risks. It is estimated that global investment in clean energy might need to triple to $4 trillion in the coming years to hit net zero targets. An investment boom of this magnitude would likely lift long-term interest rates.
• How governments facilitate the energy transition will be critical for economies and markets. A brewing subsidy war between the United States and Europe could stifle innovation in the rest of the world and make it challenging for some emerging markets to compete in a rapidly evolving landscape.

Download our research report

Has active management gotten harder?

Held: October 11, 2023
52 minutes

Just how hard has it become for active management to provide value? And how might it fit into your portfolio? Register now for an upcoming webinar focused on this vital topic.

Watch as Adam Goff, Managing Director, Head of Research, Russell Investments moderates this session with Caroline Cai, CFA, Managing Principal, Chief Executive Officer, Portfolio Manager, Pzena Investment Management; and Joe Hemmant Senior Director, Investment Research - Equity, Russell Investments.

Some of the topics they discussed were:

• How are active managers addressing the challenge of the megacap effect, and finding outperformance in top-heavy markets?
• How can an institutional investor find a manager who is particularly adaptive in these environments and who continues to have an edge?
• How do we see the active management segment getting more competitive? And how might that benefit investors?
• Does active management still belong within your portfolio? What's the right role for it to play?

Opportunities in private credit

Held: September 26, 2023
52 minutes

In this webinar replay, Samantha Foster, Managing Director, Non-Profit OCIO Solutions, Russell Investments moderates a webinar with Keith Brakebill, CFA, Director, Senior Portfolio Manager – Private Credit, Russell Investments; and Brad Colman, Global Head of Healthcare Investing, Blackstone Credit to discuss:

• The need for additional capital in private credit to match what has been raised on the private equity side and the lack of alternative sources of credit for borrowers in today's market. This has created a buyer's market in the private credit space, which may benefit investors.
• How private credit managers generate returns for investors. It's more than just generating loans and coupons. And because this topic can quickly get complicated, they'll work to balance insight with clarity.

Read related blog post

Debt ceiling, credit spreads, and a potential recession

Held: June 15, 2023
57 minutes

Special guest, Bob Michele, CFA, Managing Director, Chief Investment Officer and Head of Global Fixed Income, Currency & Commodities Group for J.P. Morgan Asset Management was joined by Russell Investments' fixed income experts for a lively discussion on the:

• Consequences of the debt ceiling and potential resolutions
• Implications of market pricing in Treasury yield curves, investment-grade credit, and high yield, while we head into an uncertain economic environment
• Outlook and opportunity across traditional public fixed income and private credit

Interview with Thomas Jefferson University CIO: Creating a responsive balance sheet

Held: May 25, 2023
53 minutes

Alfred Salvato, SVP and CIO at Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals (Jefferson Health) joined us to discuss how Al implemented an integrated risk framework across TJU’s balance sheet assets to align the investment risk positioning with expected capital needs over the short, medium and long term.

Some key highlights include:

• Building an integrated risk financial framework to align investment strategy with financial strategy
• Should you shift from a single pool only with a long-term focus to multiple operating pools aligned by time horizon?
• Consolidating investment pools
• Increasing portfolio transparency—knowing what risks you’re exposed to when markets turn south

Read related blog post

Commercial real estate and the potential threats to the banking system

Held: May 11, 2023
50 minutes

Russell Investments' top market specialists were joined by:

• Morris Chen
  Portfolio Manager, CMBS/CRE Debt Investment Team, DoubleLine

During the webinar, the speakers explored the commercial real estate market and its potential effects on the banking sector and broader economy.

Some highlights:

• Discussion on the potential of commercial real estate debt to pose a systematic threat to the banking industry
• Factors that may help identify more vulnerable banks and using that analysis to position core and fixed income strategies
• The potential importance of rising cap rates in commercial real estate

ESG survey results panel discussion:
The ESG journey accelerates

Held: March 6, 2023
57 minutes

Russell Investments' ESG specialists were joined by:

• Jennifer Wu, J.P. Morgan Managing Director and Global Head of Sustainable Investing
• Rita Mangalick, Blackstone Credit Managing Director and Global Head of ESG

The speaker panel dove into the findings of our extensive global ESG Survey, which reflects the views of 236 asset managers across the globe, concluding with a live Q&A.

Key areas of focus:

• DEI: Find out the current state of gender and ethnic minority representation on investment staffs and how that impacts asset owners
• Greenwashing: Investors and regulators require rising transparency. How are asset managers responding?
• Manager challenges: Hear the biggest challenge asset managers face when it comes to incorporating ESG
• Dependable data: ESG data and reporting continue to be a challenge. How does this scarcity of data impact investors?
• Asset class differences: a multi-asset view of ESG integration

Volatile markets affect your institution: How to tackle the challenges

Held: September 20, 2022
57 minutes

Hosted by the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB), the webinar featured Russell Investments and Caltech speakers.

Topics discussed included:

• Volatility impacts on asset classes, private market pacing, rebalancing ranges, long-term asset allocation, and policy benchmarks
• Inflation impacts on spending policy and return targets
• Roles and responsibilities of staff and the board
• Market update and outlook

Russell Investments Chief Investment Strategist Erik Ristuben offered his view on economic and market data and the potential impacts to spending on endowments.

Douglas MacBean, Sr., Managing Director of Public and Alternative Securities at the Caltech Investment office, shared his perspective as a fiduciary regarding governance, markets, and current challenges.

Samantha Foster, Managing Director of Non-Profit Solutions at Russell Investments, moderated and provided some key governance and spending policy best practices.

The bond market in unprecedented times: Strategies for the road ahead

Held: July 19, 2022
53 minutes

Inflation and rising rates are creating sleepless nights for many institutional investors, particularly when it comes to the fixed income part of their portfolios. When will the pain end? And how are top asset managers shielding portfolio assets during these tough times?

Watch Albert Jalso, Senior Portfolio Manager, Russell Investments interview John Bellows, Portfolio Manager, Western Asset Management, and Michelle Russell-Dowe, Global Head of Securitized Products and Asset-Based Finance, Schroders Capital, on the following:

• Effects of Fed quantitative tightening impacts on valuations
• Insight on the housing market, corporate credit risk, and the default cycle
• The state of liquidity in the bond markets, including Treasuries, Corporates, Mortgages?
• What are the key supply/demand dynamics for bonds? Will selling get worse or better?

What will the Fed's next move mean for you?

Held: June 15, 2022
47 minutes

Watch this webinar featuring our seasoned pros, Paul Eitelman, Chief Investment Strategist, North America, Kate El-Hillow, Global CIO, and Erik Ristuben, Global Chief Investment Strategist, discuss the Fed's June 15 announcement to increase the federal funds rate by 0.75 percentage points to help reduce inflation without damaging the economy. They touch on recession risk, potential impacts on business activity, and the impact on global markets and other geopolitical risks.

Navigating the Crisis in Ukraine

Held: March 2, 2022
42 minutes

In this webinar recording, Kate El-Hillow, Global Chief Investment Officer, Erik Ristuben, Chief investment Strategist, and Rob Balkema, Senior Director and Head of Multi-Asset, North America at Russell Investments provided an update on the potential implications to client portfolios as well as the impact more broadly across financial markets.

Incorporating private credit into your investment portfolio

Held: November 10, 2021
60 minutes

Watch as Vic Leverett, Managing Director, Alternative Investments and Rachel Carroll, Managing Director, Consulting at Russell Investments hold a lively discussion about private credit. They'll talk about how private credit differs from private equity and the role it should play within your portfolio, what opportunities we're currently seeing in the markets and how asset managers are structuring their deals to capitalize on those opportunities, and strategies investors are using to fund those allocations.

Expressing your responsible investing beliefs in your fixed income portfolio

Held: October 20, 2021
60 minutes

Watch as Russell Investments' Lisa Schneider, Managing Director, Non-profits and Healthcare and Yoshie Phillips, Director Investment Research discuss the criteria and insights needed to effectively incorporate responsible investing criteria into your fixed income portfolio. Their discussion is followed by a conversation with Brian Svendahl, Co-Lead Portfolio Manager, Impact Investing and Managing Director, Co-Head, US Fixed Income at RBC Global Asset Management and Keith Brakebill, Senior Portfolio Manager at Russell Investments where they cover the specifics about current opportunities in this space, how to approach selecting the right managers and strategies for your portfolio, and how to effectively measure success.

Building retirement income into your existing DC plan offering

Held: June 16, 2021
60 minutes

Retirement income is fast becoming a popular DC plan option – leaving many plan sponsors the big job of figuring out how to incorporate it into their current offering. In this webinar, Rachel Carroll, Managing Director of Consulting for Russell Investments will be joined by Umberto Cirri and Russell Niswander from Nestlé, who will talk us through how they have approached rolling out a retirement income program for their participants. They’ll share how they modeled potential options, communicated and aligned their internal stakeholders, managed committee expectations, and selected products – all within the parameters of their global DC initiative.

Getting real about real estate

Held: May 6, 2021
60 minutes

2020 changed how, and where, we live, work and play, which has significant implications for the real estate sector. The big question is – how many of these shifts are permanent and how many are temporary? The answer to this question will have significant implications for public & private real estate investing going forward.

To help us look at this question in detail, we invited Michelle Foss, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Invesco and Bob Thomas, Managing Director and Co-Head of Real Estate Securities at DWS to join Russell Investments' Senior Research Analyst Adrianna Giesey and Dave Brunette, Director, Head of Listed Real Asset Research for a discussion about the public and private real estate sectors and the challenges and opportunities they believe lie ahead.

Investors - Are you ready for what's next?

Held: April 7, 2021
60 minutes

As we move from crisis to recovery, there are a lot of people wondering what comes next. Which changes from the past year will remain and which might not? What opportunities should we capitalize on and what risks should we be prepared to mitigate? We don’t have a crystal ball, but we do have the next best thing – Thimon de Jong.

Thimon is a futurist, luminary, and expert on the cross-section of human behavior, societal change, and business strategy. He will share his views on what the future may hold for businesses and economies. Thimon will be joined by Bryan Weeks, Head of Americas Institutional and Brad Jung, Head of our North American retail business for a discussion about the key issues that investors should watch closely as we transition to what's next.

Sustainable investing as a risk management tool

Held: November 10, 2020
90 minutes

Dave Chen, Adjunct Professor of Finance at Northwestern University and CEO & Chairman of Equilibrium Capital and Judith Mares, Senior Advisor at USSIF and President of Mares Financial Consulting, share their insights on the evolution of sustainable investing, the potential short and long-term effects of the current health crisis and social justice movement on sustainable investing considerations, and the impending risk factors that are likely to have an impact on investors in the coming decade.

We coupled this discussion with insights from Russell Investments' sustainable investing experts Emily Steinbarth, Senior Quantitative Research Analyst and Lisa Schneider, Head of Non-Profits and Healthcare Systems, discusses what the firm is currently doing to help meet these considerations and potential options available to investors if they want to explore this further.