And given inflation in housing, food, fuel, healthcare, education, clothing, etc, is there any additional information needed to understand why more than 60% of American adults can't meet an emergency $500 expenditure? But, everything is wonderful in our economy today?...

A number of public pension systems moved aggressively into hedge funds following the Great Financial Crisis. What they were hedging is anyone's guess given that cheap beta could be obtained at a 50% discount. But, allocate they did. We aren't...

Senator Bernie Sanders has sponsored S.805, the Inclusive Prosperity Act of 2017 . The intent of the bill is to ensure that Wall Street pays their "fair share" to support the U.S. Middle Class. Sanders' Bill would "impose a tax...

Preqin is reporting that the private equity industry had a record high of $3.1 Trillion in AUM as of December 31, 2017, representing a 20% increase from the prior year. I don't know about you, but I question whether the...

We often refer to defined contribution plans as glorified savings accounts because of the ease with which participants can access their funds. According to a recent survey by PLANSPONSOR, 13% of 401(k) participants currently have an outstanding loan. Furthermore, the...

Ryan ALM is out with their second quarter pension scorecard, and things aren't that bad so far in 2018 despite lackluster asset class returns. Ryan ALMs asset mix produced only a 1.09% return for the six months, which would look...

Anyone who has ever read one of the KCS blog posts knows that we are big fans of defined benefit plans for the masses, both private and public employees. We fear the negative implications of our failure to preserve and...

Just read a thoughtful piece by Jennifer Mueller, titled "How the Janus Ruling Might Doom Public Pension Next". Of course, the Janus, in this case, is the (Mark) Janus versus AFSCME lawsuit, which saw the Supreme Court overturn 40 years...

The last one and one-half days at the Opal Public Funds Summit East conference has been filled with outstanding panel discussions on a variety of asset classes and investing strategies. Each discussion geared toward the plan sponsor's dilemma of achieving...

I had the opportunity during the weekend to read the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for a municipality, which will remain unnamed. These reports provide a lot of really good information. I always find the Retirement Systems and Deferred Income...