Activist warning

Preliminary year-end data from the Conference Board's Institutional Investment Report show that US institutions topped $14.3 trillion in total assets in 1997, up from $12 trillion at the end of 1996. Indeed, in the last seven years, institutional assets have increased more than 125 percent, rising 14.5 percent from 1995 to 1996, and another 19 percent from 1996 to 1997 alone. Pension funds continue to dominate the institutional investment arena, holding 47.3 percent of all assets and 25.8