Ryan ALM
Blog
Not a Correlation of 1, But Certainly Strongly Positive
We recently produced a post on the investment into Bitcoin and Ethereum by a large public pension system. One of the points stressed by this plan's CIO was the fact that "this is another tool to manage my risk,” that...
Happy Thanksgiving!
I want to wish you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving holiday from my family and me (sorry, Calvin Russell Kamp, our youngest grandchild who didn't make it into this picture). May the beginning of this holiday season be truly memorable!...
This is No Time to be Greedy
The WSJ's Heather Gillers has published an article today highlighting the potential risk of a liquidity crunch due to asset allocation decisions that have significantly reduced both fixed income and cash, as more aggressive exposure to alternatives - private equity...
Leverage - A Double-edged Sword
There have been many investment strategies over the years that have incorporated some aspect of leverage, but it is rare to see a public pension system decide to use leverage as an overlay on its plan's asset allocation. The CalPERS...
Funded Status Improvement - Now What?
PlanSponsor magazine is reporting on the improved funded status of DB plans following strong asset growth that offset a more modest rise in plan liabilities during October. Several organizations, including Ryan ALM, have "pension monitors" that are all reflecting similar...
Pension Stabilization - What is it?
We recently read an article (actually a paid commercial) from a large asset management organization that declared that traditional LDI was dead and that " pension stabilization " was to become LDI 3.0. For those interested, LDI 1.0 was the...
Is it Time to Go Back to the Future?
I haven't had the opportunity to speak with Michael J. Fox, but I believe that he'd agree with John Lowell. According to the latest JOLTS release, there are approximately 10.4 million job openings in the US at the end of...
They Got the Vote!
As mentioned earlier this week in a previous blog post , Norwich, CT sought support from town residents to approve a $145 million Pension Obligation Bond (POB). I'm happy to report that the community supported this initiative. Now the challenging...
Pension Fund to be Stable in 22 Years - Really?
I can't tell you how many times I've read articles about underfunded pension systems that are "on track" to be fully funded in x # of years. The most recent one claims that the fund will be stable in 22-years....
Norwich, CT POB - Will it Get Voter Support?
Norwich, CT residents (population 40,000) are going to the polls today to vote on a Pension Obligation Bond (POB) of $145 million. The pension system currently has a 59% funded ratio (under GASB accounting). The "need" to issue a POB...