For many pension plans, investment strategy is often structured with a liability-hedging portfolio and a growth portfolio, with the weight and composition of each determined by a strategic asset allocation or a de-risking glidepath. Within this overall structure, the construction and calibration of the liability-hedging portfolio is integral to effective pension asset management. This report […]
April 2018
As pressures on pensions mount, we believe financial executives are best served by re-evaluating major decisions in terms of the true tools at their disposal. In this paper we review four levers that are fundamental drivers of pension costs and outcomes: asset returns, liability hedging, contribution policy, and benefit management. Balancing these levers is critical to enabling greater probability of success in managing pension risk, and we introduce a framework for chief financial officers and other financial executives to use in doing so.
November 2017
In the November 2017 issue of Benefits Magazine, which covers benefit issues affecting multiemployer, single employer and public plan representatives, senior investment director and investment actuary in Cambridge Associates’ pension practice, Alex Pekker, contributed an article highlighting the potential for private investments in a pension’s investment portfolio. Pekker explains that private investments could be a […]
November 2017
Sustainable investing and the consideration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors continue to gain prominence. The new 2017 investment guidance for defined benefit (DB) schemes from The Pensions Regulator (TPR) in the United Kingdom has material new ESG content. This follows similar guidance for defined contribution (DC) schemes issued last year. Cambridge Associates has prepared this short piece to summarise this guidance and its implications for pension scheme investment strategy, including how we might help.
September 2017
The IRS’s somewhat unexpected decision to delay implementation of the RP-2014 mortality tables has impacted at least three separate aspects of pension plan strategy: calculating minimum contribution requirements; determining variable-rate PBGC premiums; and valuing lump-sum distributions to be paid out to terminated vested participants. This brief discusses what has changed and provides general considerations for all sponsors to weigh in the near term.
May 2017
Adaptive and sophisticated strategies are necessary to serve the unique features, constraints, and needs of multiemployer plans. In this note, we explore some of the key challenges that many multiemployer plans face, discuss how to invest in light of these challenges, and provide thoughts on governance and the overall role of the investment advisor in the multiemployer context.
April 2017
In an increasingly complex landscape, the fiduciary management of robust 403(b) plans has become more challenging than ever.
November 2016
Select hedge funds have provided attractive long-term returns with reduced equity beta and can be integral to pension investment strategies.
October 2016