All Letter from the US articles – Page 5
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: De-risking threatened
Corporate America is looking at the impact of the Pundt, Edward vs Verizon Communications case after the Supreme Court awarded victory to the retirees
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: No clarity on hedgies
Not all pension funds are abandoning hedge funds. And the ones that are could be making the same mistake that investors often make – basing decisions on the past.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: The robo-race starts
Robo-advisers are gaining ground in the US retirement industry. Their success will have an impact on the market, accelerating the shift of assets out of actively managed funds and into index funds
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: The Yale effect
Good things come in small packages. It sounds so true reading the latest annual National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) Commonfund study of endowment performance.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: In search of balance
A woman leads one of the US pension funds most committed to long-terminism. She is Theresa J Whitmarsh, executive director of the Washington State Investment Board (WSIB), managing over $100bn (€89bn) of state pension, insurance, and other assets. She is also an advocate for a better gender balance in the financial industry, especially in the private equity sector.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Bad deal from IRAs
Americans are saving more in Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), but this vehicle has the highest fees and the lowest returns, according to a new study by the Center for Retirement Research (CRR) at Boston College. This means trouble for retirees.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: PE in the firing line
US public pension funds may play a role they would prefer to avoid in the 2016 presidential campaign as protagonists in the politically controversial private equity (PE) industry. Indeed, one of the reasons the Republican Mitt Romney lost the race to the White House was his connections to the sector.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Central States snag
A pensions bust-up is looming on the fringes of the 2016 Presidential campaign, involving the 115,500 retirees of the Central States Pension Fund (CSPF) who face a 28% average cut of their monthly pension. But the stakes are much larger. Senator Bernie Sanders, one of the Democratic presidential contenders, is championing the rights of those retirees. His attempt to stop the cuts with a new law could affect the whole pension industry.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Lower expectations
Most US state retirement systems are cutting their investment return predictions. But this is still not enough, according to critics, and a minority of public pension funds are retaining optimistic assumptions and aggressive strategies.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: From small beginnings
The US private retirement annuity market is quite small. But it is likely to grow dramatically thanks to the convergence of various factors
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: A new way of thinking
Three years ago car makers Ford and General Motors opened the way to a new means of de-risking defined-benefit (DB) pension plans. They offered a lump sum to participants who were receiving benefits
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Reform challenge
The head of one of America’s largest financial product providers recently gave a provocative talk on retirement to a think tank based in New York
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: DB pensions bond bind
US corporate pension funds are caught in a dilemma. They are buying long-dated bonds to match their liabilities but in doing so they are driving down their yields, making liabilities look more expensive
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Pensions push on climate change
US pension funds are using the meetings to push forward their agenda on climate change
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Move to put clients first
Who will manage the new My Retirement Account (MyRA) pension savings vehicle? This is a big question for the US pension fund industry now that President Barack Obama has created the new programme.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Funding under pressure
Wall Street posted record highs in 2014 but this was not enough to compensate for other negative factors affecting US corporate pension plans. Their funding status dropped from 89% at the end of 2013 to 80% by the end of 2014, according to Towers Watson, and the pension deficit increased to $343bn (€303bn), doubling that of 2013. Overall pension plan funding fell by $181bn.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: A model for future cuts?
The pension industry is concerned with the consequences of a bipartisan amendment to the $1.1trn (€924 bn) ominbus spending bill that Congress approved in December. This cuts benefits for multi-employer plan members and experts are now debating whether it is a model for further cuts across the industry.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Data managers
Technological tools, data management, attention to governance and transparency are the most important issues for pension fund CIOs right now.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: End to pensions taboo
Pension reform is no longer a taboo subject for voters: this is one of the outcomes of the 4 November mid-term elections.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Pensions and start-ups
Can pension funds play a greater role in stimulating start-ups and economic growth? Some US politicians think so and are trying to deploy public retirement assets for this goal. But critics claim that results have been disappointing so far, mostly because pension funds invest through private equity funds that demand very high fees. So a new idea is gaining support – pension funds investing directly in private companies, cutting out intermediaries.
