Reading Time: 3 minutesSituated 120km from Weymouth on the English South Coast, and 50km from Normandy, Guernsey (population 65,000) is a beautifully scenic island with around 50km of coastline and a maritime climate supported by the gulf stream which leads to pleasant summers and mild winters. It is also well known for a regulatory-light insurance regime, leading to the island deriving … More Guernsey is a lovely place …
Reading Time: 4 minutesTail risk hedging seems to be a popular topic at the moment, why? Markets are at highs, but plenty of risks remain. While equity markets have rallied considerably in recent years – The equity market (as measured by the MSCI World Index) is up over 30% since Mario Draghi proclaimed the ECB had “removed tail risk for … More 3 ways to protect a portfolio against downside risks
Reading Time: 3 minutesI had the pleasure of speaking at The Institute of Actuaries Pensions conference in June 2014 on the topic of social media in the pensions industry. It’s a fascinating topic in which I’m far from an expert, but I have learnt a few interesting things since first dipping my toe in the professional social media … More Using Social Media in the Pensions Industry
Reading Time: 6 minutesIntuitively we know that one of the largest single risks facing a defined-benefit pension fund is longevity – that of its members living longer. Its now well known of course that this risk has repeatedly hurt schemes in the past, as past predictions on the path of longevity improvements have proven to be incorrect. … More Live long & prosper: pensions schemes, longevity risk & investment strategy
Reading Time: 2 minutesI’ve had the pleasure of speaking at the Global Derivatives conference in Amsterdam in May 2014, on the ways in which institutional investors are users of options. Here’s a quick look at what I covered Firstly, I’ll look at the different groups of institutional investors including insurance companies, defined benefit and defined contribution pension funds, private wealth … More How do institutional investors use options ?
Reading Time: 2 minutes Another week, another expensive and previously high-performing manager is sacked after losing the faith of his employers following a period of under performance. So far so familiar, but am I talking about the Barclays Premiership or the world of UK pensions? And what parallels can we draw between the two? At Redington we believe successful fund … More What David Moyes can teach us about fund managers
Reading Time: 4 minutesWhen “Past performance is not necessarily a guide to the future” has never seemed more apt The rear view mirror It’s now been just over 5 years since equity markets hit their lows at the peak of the fallout from the banking/credit crises of 2008. A lot can happen in 5 years. This year’s crop of … More A lot can happen in 5 years, the rear view mirror and the road ahead
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Reading Time: 6 minutesI recently had the pleasure of attending a roundtable discussion on Liability Driven Investing, hosted by Pensions Expert. the group covered the following four questions : How do you approach LDI with schemes that do not already have it in place? Once an LDI programme is in place, does it get more sophisticated as it … More Liability Driven Investment: assets, strategies & innovation, a roundtable discussion
Reading Time: 4 minutesRead the full paper here update, this paper was quoted in a front page article in Financial News in the weeks of 7th April 2014. The online version can be found here A recent change to the banking regulatory landscape brought pension risk to the fore… On 29th November 2013, following a consultation, the Prudential … More What Lies Beneath: The hidden cost of pension fund equity risk
