Insights

A Balancing Act: Strategies for Financial Executives in Managing Pension Risk

As pressures on pensions mount, we believe financial executives are best served by re-evaluating major decisions in terms of the true tools at their disposal. In this paper we review four levers that are fundamental drivers of pension costs and outcomes: asset returns, liability hedging, contribution policy, and benefit management. Balancing these levers is critical to enabling greater probability of success in managing pension risk, and we introduce a framework for chief financial officers and other financial executives to use in doing so.

November 2017

Harvesting the Potential of Private Investments

In the November 2017 issue of Benefits Magazine, which covers benefit issues affecting multiemployer, single employer and public plan representatives, senior investment director and investment actuary in Cambridge Associates’ pension practice, Alex Pekker, contributed an article highlighting the potential for private investments in a pension’s investment portfolio. Pekker explains that private investments could be a […]

November 2017

Is Private Equity Replacing Public Equity?

It sure looks like it. The increasingly unforgiving nature of public equity markets, coupled with the continued evolution and growth of private investment markets, is making it easier for more companies to stay private, with some CEOs avowing to do so indefinitely.

November 2017

Should Investors Position Themselves for US Tax Reform?

We would not seek to position portfolios specifically for tax reform as markets have already priced in some improvement in earnings from tax cuts, and the winners and losers from the proposed tax changes will not be clear until more details are provided.

October 2017

Cryptocurrencies: Boom or Bubble?

Institutional investors should very carefully consider the risks of cryptocurrencies before investing.

October 2017

VantagePoint: Fourth Quarter 2017

This quarter’s edition covers key risks to continued economic expansion, including monetary policy and inflation pressures. Also discussed are whether investors are being compensated for taking risk and different strategies for geopolitical risks.

October 2017

Why Diversification Wins

Lessons from Fiscal Year 2017 Results Diversified investors are noticing quite a difference in 2017 fiscal year performance—and it’s a welcome change. In the midst of an extended US equity market, and with returns that many diversified investors have found hard to swallow over the last few years, the turnaround in annual performance for what […]

October 2017

Do Recent Events Change the Outlook for Insurance-Linked Security Strategies?

The strong Atlantic hurricane season and Mexican earthquakes have resulted in a tragic loss of life and property. Insurance-linked securities (ILS), meanwhile, have suffered a less dramatic impact.

October 2017