Don't Forget the Credit Spread!
While corporate plan sponsors are keenly aware of interest rate risk within their defined benefit plans, few fully appreciate the complex and significant risk posed by credit spreads.
October 2016
Hedge Fund-ing the Pension Deficit
Select hedge funds have provided attractive long-term returns with reduced equity beta and can be integral to pension investment strategies.
June 2016
Private Investments: Filling a Pension’s Return Void
Well-diligenced private investments in a skillfully constructed portfolio are important growth drivers that have helped pension funds deliver superior performance and increased the probability of meeting or exceeding long-term required returns.
October 2015
Navigating the Diversified Growth Fund Maze
Diversified growth funds (DGFs) have garnered significant attention and assets—particularly amongst UK defined benefit pension schemes—as a less volatile source of long-term growth. DGFs can be valuable tools for pension portfolio management, but only if trustees understand what they are buying and how it fits into the context of the total portfolio. The simple bifurcation of the available products into traditional and absolute return strategies can be a starting point for trustees to help make sense of the market and set appropriate risk/return expectations across different market environments.
October 2015
The Forgotten 70%: Strategies for Pension Plans Accruing Benefits
Plans with active participants need a holistic, flexible risk budgeting approach—not a simple glide path.
July 2015
MAPping the Future of Pension Funding
The Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2014, which temporarily maintains the solvency of the Highway Trust Fund, can benefit most pension plan sponsors by giving them flexibility around the timing and amount of contributions for the next several years, but may not decrease the total amount of contributions required over the long term.
August 2014
Constructing a Liability Hedging Portfolio: A Guide to Best Practices for US Pension Plans
The construction and calibration of a liability hedging portfolio is integral to effective pension portfolio risk management, and this report delineates key considerations and best practices for the liability hedge allocation.
May 2014