Reading Time: 3 minutesThis was written as a response to this post on mallowstreet.com, which itself was a summary of a presentation given at the annual TUC pensions conference which made several points including advocating pension schemes reject Liability Drive Investing as a “distraction”, and focus instead on future income streams. The blog also questioned the relevance of … More What is the purpose of a pension scheme?
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe December update of the PPF’s 7800 index of pension fund assets and liabilities revealed a sharp increase in funded position for schemes in aggregate over the course of 2013, from a funding level of 83% at the end of 2012, to 98% at the end of 2013. These levels compare to the low point of … More PPF 7800 Index funding level increases 15% in 2013
Reading Time: 4 minutesIt’s that time of year when everyone is getting their predictions in for 2014. Will equities enjoy another bumper year or will returns be more modest … or will they be negative ? Not surprisingly given we are in the midst of a bull-market a lot of the talk is of how much higher equities … More What will the FTSE’s Low be in 2014?
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe FTSE 100 index celebrated its 30th birthday on the 3rd of January 2014, my, hasn’t time flown! The index started life at a level of 1,000 and closed on the 2 January 2014 at 6,717, meaning an investment made at the start would be worth over 6 times as much (not counting dividends, as … More Happy 30th FTSE!
Reading Time: 5 minutesAs we close the year of the Snake, and move into the year of the Horse, we are again reviewing the major asset class moves, from a UK pension fund investment perspective, in a similar way to what we did last year. UK Inflation Long term inflation expectations increased, with the 30 year zero-coupon RPI … More 2013 In Review: Asset Class Returns and Key Drivers
Reading Time: 2 minutesHappily, I received this book as a stock-filler on Christmas day and promptly got stuck into it straight after lunch, by the end of boxing day I had finished it, in more or less two sittings. Having read and enjoyed Tim Harford‘s first book The Undercover Economist I was familiar with his chatty easy-to-read style as well as … More Book review: The Undercover Economist Strikes Back
Reading Time: 2 minutesLast year I made a resolution to start a blog on things that interested me, now that blog is nearly a year old, I’m really happy (and amazed) to report the stats from the last 12 months – over 4,000 unique page views from 30 separate entries, with 8 entries receiving over 100 views. The blog … More Most Read in 2013
Reading Time: 2 minutesMohamed El-Erian of PIMCO put out a great blog piece a few days ago, the gist of which was, to paraphrase: – Major equity markets reacted negatively to the seemingly better-than-expected US Q3 GDP print, and twitter IPO on Thursday November 7th – Major equity markets reacted positively to the better-than-expected October jobs report on Friday November … More Update: Good News now really is Good News
Reading Time: 5 minutesIntuitively we know that one of the largest single risks facing a defined-benefit pension fund is longevity – that of its members living longer. Techniques exist to quantify this risk, but for several reasons it remains difficult for pension funds to properly “deal” with this risk within their existing framework : 1. It doesn’t feel … More Live long & prosper : how DB schemes can manage longevity risk
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe Financial Awards 2013 were held at the Victoria & Albert museum in London in October 2013. It was a doubly enjoyable evening as Redington were awarded consulting firm of the year, ahead of all our main competitors. Another recognition in a really great year and testament to a huge amount of hard work and teamwork. In … More One night at the V&A
