October 2019

11Oct

Defined Contribution Plans: Key Information on Target Date Funds as Default Investments Should Be Provided to Plan Sponsors and Participants: Report to Congressional Requesters.

By U S Government Accountability Office Enroll workers, in 2007 the Department of Labor (DOL) identified three qualified default investment alternatives. One of these optionstarget date funds (TDF)has emerged as by far the most popular default investment. TDFs are designed to provide an age-appropriate asset allocation for plan participants over time.Because of recent concerns about significant losses in and differences in the performance of some TDFs, GAO was asked address the following questions: (1) To what extent do the...

October 11, 2019
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11Oct

Defined Benefit Pension De-Risking and Corporate Investment Policy

By Brian Silverstein U.S. corporate sponsors of defined benefit pension plans in recent years have been de-risking by paying premiums to transfer their pension plan assets and liabilities to the balance sheets of third party insurers. The passage of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) in 2012 provided the pension funding relief necessary to make de-risking a mainstream corporate activity. This study provides the first empirical analysis of plan and firm factors that cause...

October 11, 2019
Articles, Investment, Pension design,
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11Oct

Tactical Target Date Funds

By Francisco Gomes, Alexander Michaelides, Yuxin Zhang We propose target date funds modified to exploit stock return predictability driven by the variance risk premium. The portfolio rule of these tactical target date funds (TTDFs) is extremely simplified relative to the optimal one, making it easy to implement and communicate to investors. We show that saving for retirement in TTDFs generates economically large welfare gains, even after we introduce turnover restrictions and transaction costs, and after taking into account parameter...

October 11, 2019
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04Oct

Defined Benefit Pension De-Risking and Corporate Investment Policy

By Brian Silverstein U.S. corporate sponsors of defined benefit pension plans in recent years have been de-risking by paying premiums to transfer their pension plan assets and liabilities to the balance sheets of third party insurers. The passage of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) in 2012 provided the pension funding relief necessary to make de-risking a mainstream corporate activity. This study provides the first empirical analysis of plan and firm factors that cause...

October 4, 2019
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July 2019
19Jul

U.S. Public Pension Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for Trustees and Investment Staff

By Von M Hughes In an ever-changing financial and political landscape, your job as a public pension fiduciary continues to get more difficult. Now, you have the help you need. U.S. Public Pension Handbook is the only one-stop resource that covers the various areas of public pension policy design, governance, investment management, infrastructure, accounting, and law. This comprehensive guide presents critical data, information, and insights in topic-specific, easy-to-understand ways--providing the knowledge you need to elevate your expertise...

July 19, 2019
Books, Investment, Regulation, ,
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12Jul

Must an Occupational Pension Scheme Take Into Account ESG Factors Even If There Is a Risk of Financial Detriment to the Pension Fund?

By Philip Bennett This paper outlines the legal rules that regulate the investment of the assets of an English law occupational pension scheme set up under trust where the investment powers over those assets are held by the scheme trustee. Those rules derive from a combination of EU Directives (in particular, Article 18 of Directive 2003/41/EC (the “IORP I Directive”) replaced by Article 19 of Directive 2016/2341 (the “IORP II Directive”)), UK legislation transposing those Directives and adding further...

July 12, 2019
Articles, Investment, Pension design, ,
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June 2019

12Jun

Growth Markets Asset Allocation Trends: Evolving Landscape

By Fiona Dunsire What happens as global economic leadership changes hands from the Western economy to the growth markets — countries in Asia, Latin America, Middle East and Africa? In our very first Growth Markets Asset Allocation Trends: Evolving Landscape, we analyze pension fund asset allocation in these dynamic markets and interpret what the trends mean for asset owners, asset managers and, ultimately, individual investors. Consider these numbers: 25 of the top 50 global institutional investors are located in...

June 12, 2019
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