By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. Milliman has published the results of the latest Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index (PFI) that reviews the funding for the 100 largest U.S. corporate pension plans. November wasn't a great month for...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. There seems to be a fascination in our industry about using the duration of bonds to help mitigate pension funding risk, but does it? Let's start with the basics. What is duration?...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. Every investment management organization believes that it has some secret sauce that provides their investment process with the ability to consistently add value. If that were true, one would think that the...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. Welcome to December! Wow, 2023 certainly seems to have flown by. Let me take this opportunity to wish our Jewish readers a Happy Hanukkah, which begins on Thursday, December 7th and will...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to meet or speak with Charlie Munger, but I would always welcome the opportunities to read what he has to say. His brilliance was in the...

By: Russ Kamp, managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. Given the significant escalation in US interest rates during the last 20 months, it isn't surprising that the investing community has taken a greater interest in bond strategies that can help reduce...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. You may recall that 20 days ago in a blog post titled, "Oh, What A Beautiful Morning" , I threatened to break out into song. I didn't then and I won't now....

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. We hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! Given the short work week it isn't surprising that there wasn't a ton of activity related to the ARPA legislation. However, there were...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. The PBGC has recently published its annual performance and financial report for 2023. Because of the ARPA legislation and the grant monies awarded to 35 distressed plans (covering roughly 615,000 participants), the...

By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc. Fidelity has provided an update through Q3'23 for participants in their 401(k), 403(b), and IRA accounts. The third quarter proved challenging for the participants who saw declines in each of the plan...