Ryan ALM
Blog
What is My Funded Ratio? Who Cares!
The funded ratio of a DB pension plan gets a lot of attention, especially if it is perceived to be weak. But does the funded ratio truly tell you the whole story as to the financial health of a DB...
New Jersey's Pension System's "High" Investment Return
As a taxpaying resident in New Jersey and a huge supporter of defined benefit plans who has a daughter in the system, I was happy to read that NJ's pension systems generated strong investment returns in fiscal year 2025, reporting...
Good Question!
We occasionally post questions received in reaction to our blogs in new blog posts since many of our readers might have similar thoughts/ideas. In reaction to yesterday's post, "All-time High Funded Ratio" a reader calling themselves LoudlyObservant (great name) stated...
You Don't Say!
Morgan Stanley has published the results from their Taft-Hartley survey , in which they have to provided "insights into how Taft-Hartley plans are managing priorities and navigating challenges to strengthen their plans". I sincerely appreciate MS's effort and the output...
Milliman: Another good month for pension funding
Whether one is referring to public pensions or private DB plans, September was a continuation of the positive momentum experienced for most of 2025. Milliman has reported on both the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index (PFI), which analyzes the 100...
Corporate Pension Funding - UP!
I was out of the office last week, and as a result I am trying to play catch-up on some of the stories that I think you'd be interested in. Happy to report that Milliman released its monthly Milliman 100...
The Intrinsic Value of Bonds
Ronald J. Ryan, CFA, Chairman The true value of bonds is the certainty of their cash flows (interest + principal payments). I don’t believe there is another asset class with such attributes. This is why bonds have traditionally been the...
Milliman - Corporate Pension Funding Falls in March
Milliman has just released its monthly Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index (PFI) , which analyzes the 100 largest U.S. corporate pension plans. Weak investment returns, estimated at -1.4%, drove the PFI asset level down by $25 billion during March. Current...
An Ugly Day For Pension America
Yes, today's ugliness in the markets is only one day and how many times have we heard or read that you can't market time or if you miss just the best performing 25-, 50-, or 100-days in the stock market,...
What's Your Duration?
The recent rise in U.S. Treasuries had us redoubling our effort to encourage plan sponsors of U.S. pension plans to take some risk off the table by using cash flow matching (CFM) to defease a portion of the plan's liabilities,...