Reading Time: 2 minutes It’s not been a good summer for the financial health of UK DB pension funds. Data released by the PPF in September underlined a summer of bad news for schemes and scheme sponsors. A continued trend of falling gilt yields have seen liability values increase dramatically – adding more than £200bn to the aggregate deficit … More Grim Summer for DB Pensions
Reading Time: < 1 minute DB Pensions News September 2016
Reading Time: < 1 minute My TED-style talk from our January 2016 unconference on some of the trends in UK pensions de-risking over the last decade
Reading Time: 3 minutes Over the course of 2015 I had over 6,500 views of my blog posts (across the WordPress and LinkedIn platforms, an average of around 18 per day) – hardly viral I grant you but something I’m quite pleased with, given the admittedly relatively niche content! Overall in three years of blogging I’ve now received around … More Volatility & LDI – 2015’s Most Popular
Reading Time: 4 minutes UK pension funds have been through a hell of a ride over the last 10 years, and more. changes in regulation, longevity, interest rates, equity markets and the changing fortunes of sponsoring companies have all contributed to making the UK pension industry a tricky place. But are the lessons learnt relevant to other investors, particularly Sovereign … More Five lessons from UK Pensions for SWFs and Others
Reading Time: 2 minutes The PPF today published its monthly estimates of scheme funding position for the schemes in the PPF 7800 index. Not surprisingly, given the market moves over September 2015, and over the third quarter generally we saw a 5% decline in funded status over the quarter due to both declining asset values and increasing liabilities. It’s … More Mind the gap – funding levels fall as market volatility hits assets
Reading Time: 2 minutes We see literally hundreds of fund managers and investment strategies a year; which do we think are most likely to be successful in 2015? We really see three important things to focus on: risk, diversification, and freedom. Let’s take each of those in turn. Risk. This might sound obvious, but as we see it, the … More Which Investment Strategies Will Thrive in 2015 ?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Tail 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: 4 minutes When “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
Reading Time: 4 minutes Read 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
