Ryan ALM
White Papers
Pension Doctor: Specialist or Generalist?
Pension Doctor: Generalist or Specialist When a person gets sick or has an injurythey go see a doctor. Usually, they prefer to see a Specialist who is the recognized expert...
When is a Pension Fully Funded?
The Funded Ratio tends to be the acid test and benchmark for funded status… but is it? We have written several research white papers (www. RyanALM/Research/White Papers) about the glaring...
Pension Conundrum: Same or Similar ROA
The Funded Ratio (FR) of a pension is usually based on the actuarial value of assets / actuarial value of liabilities. The Funded Status (FS) is the actuarial value of...
What’s It All About? Liabilities!
Most institutional assets are required to fund some type of liability objective (Pensions, OPEB, Lottery, Endowment & Foundation) yet liabilities tend to be missing in every function related to assets:...
Bond Yields… Caveat Emptor
Most bonds are priced and traded on some yield calculation. These yield calculations are based on assumptions that are difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. For example: Yield to Maturity...
How Bonds Can Enhance the ROA
Given the volatility and uncertainty of the financial markets, bonds can provide Pension Plan Sponsors a strategy to mitigate some of that volatility. Bonds, through the certainty of their cash...
Pension Strategy to Reduce Funding Costs by 20%+
The true objective of a pension is to secure and fully fund benefits in a cost-efficient manner with prudent risk . It is a liability and cost objective… it is...
The Smartest Beta
The term “beta” is credited to William F. Sharpe, Ph.D. in his 1964 work in development of the “Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM)”. It means (1) the covariance of the...
The Evolution of Asset/Liability Management
CEO, Ryan ALM, Inc. What Is Asset/Liability Management (ALM)? The objective of most institutions in the United States with assets to invest is to fund some sort of liability, (banks,...
Liability Beta vs. Market Beta
Beta is a term first pioneered by PhD. William Sharpe in his 1970 book “Portfolio Theory and Capital Markets”. Here he introduced his famous capital asset pricing model (CAPM) which...
How To De-risk a Pension
Risk is best defined as the “uncertainty” of meeting the client objective. The pension objective is to fund liabilities in a cost-effective manner such that contribution costs remain low and...
Ryan ALM Pension Alert Q2’23
Most Asset Allocations for pensions are based on achieving the ROA. The ROA is an annual forecast of asset returns. Each asset class is assigned a ROA then weighted by...