Insights

Private Direct Lending or Public BDCs? Guidance for Pension Plan Sponsors

Private credit has become a popular asset class among pension plan sponsors seeking yield enhancement over their public fixed income allocations. The non-bank finance market has flourished since the Global Financial Crisis due to a more restrictive bank regulatory environment, resulting in reduced bank lending activity, and a wide range of private credit opportunities are […]

July 2023

Liquidity Hazard Planning for Families of Wealth

Families of significant wealth can experience sustained periods of time where liquidity is not a foremost priority. Demands for liquid capital can rapidly emerge, however, like the sudden onset of the COVID-19 crisis in March 2020, and cause trouble for the unprepared. In the worst-case scenario, investors may need to sell growth-focused assets during a […]

July 2023

A New Approach: How ERISA-Covered US Pension Plans Can Save on PBGC Premiums

Saving on Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) premiums has long been at the forefront of many pension risk management decisions. When interest rates were near historic lows during 2019 and 2020, many single-employer plan sponsors changed their methodology for calculating these premiums to reduce their tax obligation to the federal government. Although it appeared like […]

July 2023

Simplifying Family Investment Portfolios

For families of significant wealth, complexity is a natural byproduct of a well-managed portfolio. A dynamic portfolio can help address a number of investment challenges that families of wealth face, including varying multigenerational preferences, unique tax considerations, domicile requirements, and specific beneficiary needs. Yet there is also such a thing as overcomplexity, which can waste […]

June 2023

Does the Recent Rally in AI-Linked Growth Stocks Mean Value Is Doomed?

No. While the exciting developments in artificial intelligence (AI) have been a bright spot for equity markets this year, we do not think value will continue to lag growth. In fact, we expect it will outperform over the next several years. Growth indexes have already retraced nearly all of last year’s underperformance relative to value. […]

June 2023

Don’t Count Out Government Bonds Just Yet

Historically, we have recommended investors hold high-quality government bonds as a counterbalance in equity-heavy portfolios. However, in recent years, some investors have reduced their exposure to government bonds, given their low yields, in favor of cash. This was prescient in 2022. Global equities returned -16% in local currency terms, but government bonds also suffered steep […]

June 2023

Private Credit: Opportunities Abound

A robust opportunity set for credit opportunity funds has emerged thanks to a constellation of factors. Rising interest rates, a retrenchment of bank lending appetite, and an expected economic downturn have combined to increase borrowing costs for stressed issuers and create a broad distressed opportunity. Investors that commit capital to funds this vintage year are […]

June 2023

Is China’s Economy Stalling?

No. Economic growth in China is likely to reach 5% this year, which is in line with government targets and consensus forecasts. Following a stronger-than-expected first quarter, recent economic data has softened, disappointing investor expectations of a sharper recovery after last year’s COVID-19 lockdown, but the Chinese economy is not on the verge of relapsing […]

June 2023