Pension Lessons Learned - April 15 & 22, 2020

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Pension plans have drifted away from their true objective of securing benefits in a cost-effective manner with prudent risk. Their asset allocation is now heavily skewed to risky and private assets that have much less liquidity. As a result, their funded status has been on a roller coaster of volatility with contribution costs spiking since 1999. Any deep downward movement in asset allocation returns now requires a higher return to restore the funded status since there is no surplus anymore. Pension plans used to understand their liabilities and require assets to be managed to them through defeasance and asset/liability matching strategies. We need to go back to pension fundamentals and revisit the strategies that created fully funded plans with pension surpluses.

Sponsored by

Ryan ALM Advisers, LLC is a fixed income investment advisor specializing in asset liability management through cash flow driven investing (CDI).

Ryan ALM Advisers, LLC provides a synergistic process that secures benefits, reduces funding costs, and de-risks the plan. Our process features our proprietary financial models of a Custom liability Index and Liability Beta Portfolio.

www.ryanalm.com

2:00pm EST

EPISODE 1
How to secure your fund while achieving the true objective of a pension

The true objective of a pension is to secure benefits in a cost-effective manner. Current assets fund net liabilities after contributions. In order for pensions to achieve their primary objective they need to first install a Custom Liability Index (CLI) to calculate net liabilities and all the vital statistics needed for asset liability management. Second, they need to install a cash flow matching portfolio that will fund net Retired Lives chronologically at the lowest cost to the plan and maximize the efficiency of the plan’s asset allocation.

Speakers

Ronald Ryan, CEO, Founder, Ryan ALM, Inc.

Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc.

2:00pm EST

EPISODE 2
How to make asset allocation more responsive to the funded status

The secondary objective of a pension is to maximize the efficiency of the asset allocation. Asset allocation needs to know the calculated ROA that will fully fund all residual liabilities (Active Lives + Retired Lives not funded by the cash flow matching portfolio). This requires an asset exhaustion test customized to each plan sponsor’s funded status. Performance measurement needs to monitor asset growth vs. liability growth (as measured by the CLI) frequently to make sure the plan is on track to full funding.

Speakers

Ronald Ryan, CEO, Founder, Ryan ALM, Inc.

Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc.

Panelist

Brad Heinrichs, President/CEO, Foster & Foster, Inc.