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WPF Risk Summit

Hybrids: best of both worlds

The funding levels of US public pension funds, falling from 100 per cent in 2001 to 77 per cent now, is the result of bad governance, according to David Villa, chief investment officer of the $91 billion State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB). He says irrational governance and imprudent management has resulted in the funding […]
Amanda WhiteAugust 27, 2013
Uncategorised posts

Holland’s hybrid: defined ambition

Jan Tamerus, actuary director at PGGM, was instrumental in developing the new Dutch pension defined-ambition structure. Back in 2006, he was involved in looking at the sustainability of the defined benefit system and in concluding it was not in fact sustainable, the idea of defined ambition evolved. One of the key reasons for not going […]
Amanda WhiteMay 1, 2013
Uncategorised posts

Cass creates principles
for DC model

As almost every market in the world looks to move from defined benefit to some sort of defined contribution model, academics at the Pensions Institute of the Cass Business School, City University London have developed a set of 15 principles for designing a defined contribution model. The principles, consistent with the recently published OECD guidelines, are based […]
Amanda WhiteMarch 27, 2013
Investor Profile

Defined benefit thrives at Migros

Success stories at pension funds are a real rarity in crisis-ravaged Europe, with deficits hampering countless major international firms. The CHF16.9-billion ($18.1-billion) pension fund of Swiss supermarket cooperative, Migros, is firmly in the blessed minority of funds enjoying rude health. Migros Pensionskasse was even able to boost its surplus to $1.3 billion in 2011 while […]
Dan BillinghamOctober 24, 2012
Uncategorised posts

Robert Merton: the individual plan man

A retirement solution that focuses on outcomes and is customised for each participant cannot be met by existing defined-contribution designs, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist, Robert Merton, who advocates a “next-generation DC solution”. Merton, who is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management’s distinguished professor of finance and resident scientist at Dimensional Fund […]
Amanda WhiteAugust 24, 2012
Uncategorised posts

Pension reform divides state of New York

Pension reform in the state of New York is politically embroiled with the New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and fellow democrat New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli at opposite ends of the defined benefit/defined contribution debate. DiNapoli is the sole trustee of the state’s $149.9 billion public fund and a strong proponent of its defined […]
SAM RILEYMarch 7, 2012
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