Someone managing a pension fund is a sophisticated investor. My sister is a teacher with a claim on the sizeable Ontario teachers pension fund but she doesn't pick the individual investments they do, nor should she.
Completely sure. My Australian superannuation/pension was heavily tied up with various hedgefunds and it lost about 50% of its value in 2008. I can't tell them how to spend my money and I can only change between a very similar set of funds. Many pensions around the world are in similar arrangements with hedgefunds and investment banks.
You can put your super into a huge variety of places, or even run your own fund. Iirc there are about half a million or so such private 'funds' in Australia.
