By: Ronald J. Ryan, CEO, Ryan ALM, Inc. Well, assets had a BAD year with negative growth rates for the major asset classes: S&P 500 -18.1% BB Aggregate -13.0% According to the Ryan ALM Pension Monitor, pension assets had a...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. Happy New Year! At least it was for some US equity investors prior to this afternoon's release of the December FOMC meeting notes, which once again highlighted the fact that there is...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. The last 43 years have been an extraordinary time for both bonds and stocks. Including the calendar year 1980, a 60% S&P 500 and 40% BB Aggregate asset allocation produced an incredible...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. The PBGC was flooded with applications for Special Financial Assistance (SFA) last week with the submission of 13 filings, including 8 Priority Group 5 initial applications, 3 Priority Group 2 (PG2) initial...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. I suspect that most Americans wouldn't be surprised to read that the US Middle Class continues to be impacted most negatively by four decades high inflation. According to a WSJ article, "purchasing...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. I was recently provided an opportunity to join Robert Morier and Dan DiDomenico on a Dakota Live Podcast. It was great fun to share insights with these two highly experienced investment professionals....

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. Christmas came a few days early for a couple of multiemployer plans and their participants, as the PBGC approved the initial application for two MPRA Suspension plans, the International Association of Machinists...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. Kuhn Loeb & Co. (there's a name from the past) introduced the first bond indexes in the summer of 1973. It included: Kuhn Loeb Bond Index = 3,650 investment grade corporate bond...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. Last week, The Wealth Advisor published an article highlighting the onerous impact of rising US interest rates on the performance of large (>$1 billion) bond funds, which were screened using data compiled...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. Producing posts/articles on the Ryan ALM, Inc. blog has been very rewarding for me. I've now produced more than 1,160 posts that date back 2019 when I joined Ryan ALM and prior...