[Books] Wiser – how group decisions can let us down

Reading Time: 5 minutes I’m sure you can picture the scene. A group sits down to make a critically important decision. Much discussion follows. One person after another lays out their views, lots of points are made. There are some clear areas of agreement. Nods all round. The answer starts to become clear. With a few changes a consensus … More [Books] Wiser – how group decisions can let us down

Why Anthony Hilton is Wrong on Pensions 

Reading Time: 2 minutes “Expected returns don’t pay benefits, cash does” Anthony Hilton recently wrote a stinging attack on pension consultants -like myself- who advise defined benefit pension schemes to measure, and hedge, their liabilities with reference to gilt yields. Here’s one (of several) reasons why he’s wrong. His argument – that you could fund based on the much … More Why Anthony Hilton is Wrong on Pensions 

Taming Pension Risk? 

Reading Time: 5 minutes This article first appeared in the May 2016 edition of The Actuary magazine (here) The past 10 years have been a uniquely challenging, volatile and uncertain period for UK defined benefit pension schemes. How well have they weathered the storm? We found out by analysing data published by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) in its … More Taming Pension Risk? 

Changing Times – 50 Years of UK Pensions

Reading Time: 3 minutes A lot has changed since 1962, particularly in the world of finance and pensions. UBS recently published a weighty tome containing some fascinating data on global markets and pension funds: A long-term perspective on pension fund investment Worth a read, one thing I found particularly interesting was the long-term data going back 50 years on … More Changing Times – 50 Years of UK Pensions

What Can Pension Schemes Learn from the PPF ?

Reading Time: 2 minutes The PPF publishes regular updates on the financial health of DB pension schemes in the UK (the PPF 7800 index) and also its own funding position. In recent times there has been quite some contrast between the two sets of figures (thanks to Pensions Expert for a great article highlighting this. Sure, the PPF collects … More What Can Pension Schemes Learn from the PPF ?

LDI Continues to Thrive – 5 Takeaways from the KPMG Survey

Reading Time: 2 minutes As the UK Liability Driven Investing (LDI) market has grown over the last decade the KPMG LDI Survey “Navigating the LDI Market” has become a really useful tool for understanding the growth of the market at a high level and who the major players are from an asset management perspective. The latest version of the survey, … More LDI Continues to Thrive – 5 Takeaways from the KPMG Survey