Ryan ALM
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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...
All-time High Funded Ratio!
Milliman released the 2025 output for its Multiemployer Pension Funding Study (MPFS), which analyzes the funded status of all U.S. multiemployer DB pension plans. The analysis incorporates the assumptions and data from each fund's Form 5500 filing. As of December...
ARPA Update as of February 13, 2026
The PBGC team must have been preparing for Valentine's Day last week, as there is nothing to update this week. However, they continue to show very little love to the 80 pension plans currently on the waitlist and described as...
It Should Be Relative and NOT Absolute
I was participating on a panel at the Opal/LATEC conference yesterday. The moderator asked a question about the importance of process. In my response, I mentioned a number of process elements that are critical to the successful management of pension...
It's Not A Product - It's A Service!
Anyone who has read my blogs (>1,700 to date) knows that my personal mission and that of Ryan ALM, Inc. is to protect and preserve defined benefit pension plans. How is our collective mission pursued? It is through the implementation...
Milliman: Corporate Pension Funding Soars
Milliman has once again released its monthly Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index (PFI), which analyzes the 100 largest U.S. corporate pension plans, and the news continues to be quite good. Market appreciation of 1.05% during January lifted the market value...
ARPA Update as of February 6, 2026
It looks like those of us in the Northeast will finally get some respite from the bitter cold, as temps will moderate this week and actually hit the 30s. However, those multiemployer pension plans currently sitting on the waitlist and...
Continued Steepening
Given today's headline news related to initial jobless claims and layoffs for January, which were at the highest level since 2009, risk assets are once again selling off (Bitcoin -7% and Nasdaq -1.5%), while short-term Treasury notes are rallying. As...
How Do You Know?
I'm on my way home from another terrific FPPTA conference. The only issue I have is with the weather Gods. How is it that Orlando had weather similar to what New Jersey experiences during January? Yes, I was in a...
Financial Leverage - A Double-edged Sword
As I recently reported in a blog post titled “Another Cockroach!”, BlackRock TCP Capital, a business-development company (BDC), reported that it would be slashing the net asset value of its shares by 19% for the Q4’25. I wrote this post...