P&I/AIMSE 2nd Annual Hedge Fund Conference

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Pensions & Investments and AIMSE, two influential organizations in the money management industry, are joining forces again to bring you the 2nd Annual Hedge fund Conference.

Spend a day in NYC elbowing with some of the world's most respected buyers and consultants of hedge fund investing. Created by experienced hedge fund professionals, each session has been custom tailored, each speaker hand-selected to uncover the history, and expand on the current and future business of hedge funds. Get it direct from the stars in the industry: the experts who invest in, recommend and have started many of the most successful hedge funds today.

2008 P&I Defined Contribution Conference - EAST COAST

Sunday, March 2, 2008 - March 4, 2008

The P&I Defined Contribution Conference is designed
to help industry professionals stay up to speed on
legislation, regulation, plan compliance, best practices
in plan design and the latest in investment products
and strategies.

The educational content of this conference will keep you on the cutting edge as it reviews policy, outlines your
obligations as a plan sponsor, and details the many
opportunities available to you.

So, to keep up to speed with the latest trends and network with your peers and other industry leaders, register for this Pensions & Investments event today.

P&I's Transition Management Conference - EAST COAST

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Plan sponsor usage of transition managers continues to grow, as more become convinced of the benefits of specialist project management and risk control. Periods of market turmoil such as those which occurred in third quarter of 2007 do have the unintended consequence of highlighting these benefits very clearly – but probably only to those in the midst of transitions without the aid of professional support. Transition management, even as it has become more sophisticated, is rarely a top agenda item for plan sponsors. This series of conferences, sponsored supplements and webcasts is an opportunity to convince the unconvinced, to explain the myriad cost and risk benefits that a professionally managed transition can bring to plan sponsors.

P&I's 403(b) Retirement Summit - EAST COAST

Tuesday, April 8, 2008 - April 9, 2008

It’s the perfect moment to talk about 403(b) retirement programs to those organizations that offer them. In late July, the Internal Revenue Service finally issued the long-awaited final regulations that clarify many of the issues that govern the operation of these plans. Few of the healthcare, educational or religious organizations that do have 403(b) plans – the virtual equivalent to the better known 401(k) programs – have exploited the possibilities that the plans offer to both the employee and the employer. Part of the reason for the reticence has been the increased legal, regulatory and Congressional scrutiny of 403(b) plans in recent years. This scrutiny and the new regulations mean that employers and employees are looking more closely at these plans, their provisions, their fees and their performance.

How does a sponsoring organization get the best out of its 403(b) retirement plan? This series of reports and events will tackle the many issues surrounding this topic. As more organizations seek to use the 403(b) as an integral part of their employee benefits package, they need to provide state-of-the-art investment management choices and easy-to-use administration. They also need to ensure that the 403(b) plan they provide offers value-for-money for the employer. And of course, that they are in compliance with the new IRS regulations.

P&I's Custom Target-Date Strategies Summit- EAST COAST

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Get Insight & Answers on Creating Custom Target-Date Strategies
Target-date funds continue to garner more interest as one of the three Qualified Default Investment Alternatives (QDIAs) designated by the Department of Labor as suitable for retirement accounts. Target-date strategies address one of the most common problems DC plan participants encounter: choosing the best investment option for their retirement funds by taking the guesswork out of the process and adjusting the asset allocation over time.
The new trend is to customize these target-date strategies for two main reasons: to tailor the offering precisely to the participant base and to reduce costs. Offering a custom-built option requires the plan sponsor to address a range of investment, operational and technical issues.
Join P&I for the conference taking place nearest you to gain insight on…
 Custom vs. off-the-shelf target-date products
 How to handle trust and custodial issues
 Choosing the right investment design for your participants
 Determining the optimal glide path
 Best practices in recordkeeping
 Addressing fiduciary and legal concerns
 And more

P&I's 130/30 Strategies Conference - WEST COAST

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

As plan sponsors become more comfortable with the use of derivatives and short-selling, asset managers are developing solutions that take advantage of the relaxation of investment constraints. One of the most popular structures is the 130/30 fund, which provides specific limits on the amount of short-selling and leverage that can be used in the construction of a portfolio. These structures, also known as active extension strategies, play to the strengths of traditional fundamental investment managers because success depends on successful security selection. 130/30 solutions allow traditional long-only managers to put to good use the information they collect on underperformers in the market. For plan sponsors, it’s a way to increase returns – achieve higher alpha - in a risk-controlled manner.
For those new to the use of leverage and short-selling, active extension strategies can be customized to achieve the same tracking error targets as long-only mandates. Equally levered strategies can be designed to achieve the same tracking error – or risk level – as an unlevered portfolio, and shorting risk can be mitigated through security or market diversification. With this flexibility to meet the risk budget of any plan, it’s no wonder that more plan sponsors are adding 130/30 structures to their core equity and even fixed income allocations. These events and associated publications will provide solutions that meets the needs of plan sponsors today.

P&I's 130/30 Strategies Conference - EAST COAST

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

As plan sponsors become more comfortable with the use of derivatives and short-selling, asset managers are developing solutions that take advantage of the relaxation of investment constraints. One of the most popular structures is the 130/30 fund, which provides specific limits on the amount of short-selling and leverage that can be used in the construction of a portfolio. These structures, also known as active extension strategies, play to the strengths of traditional fundamental investment managers because success depends on successful security selection. 130/30 solutions allow traditional long-only managers to put to good use the information they collect on underperformers in the market. For plan sponsors, it’s a way to increase returns – achieve higher alpha - in a risk-controlled manner.
For those new to the use of leverage and short-selling, active extension strategies can be customized to achieve the same tracking error targets as long-only mandates. Equally levered strategies can be designed to achieve the same tracking error – or risk level – as an unlevered portfolio, and shorting risk can be mitigated through security or market diversification. With this flexibility to meet the risk budget of any plan, it’s no wonder that more plan sponsors are adding 130/30 structures to their core equity and even fixed income allocations. These events and associated publications will provide solutions that meets the needs of plan sponsors today.

P&I's 2008 Liability Driven Investing Conference - MIDWEST

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - September 17, 2008

Liability driven investing isn’t just a catchphrase anymore. It’s a development that plan sponsors in the US are embracing. That’s because, underlying the concept of LDI, is a common sense approach to plan design that seeks to use information about assets and liabilities to inform investment decisions. As more plans move through the conceptual stage to implementation, their questions about LDI become more specific and more investment focused. LDI is not a one-size-fits-all solution, so each of the critical issues needs to be assessed as plans seek to use the strategy. Developing benchmarks, establishing risk management frameworks, choosing asset allocations and importantly monitoring LDI over time will be areas of focus. This series of conferences, supplements and webcasts will provide both the conceptual framework of LDI and insight into the most effective implementation strategies.

P&I's 2008 Managing Insurance Assets Conference

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 - October 15, 2008

In an era of volatile investment markets, insurance companies like other institutional investors need to make their assets work harder. One solution that is attracting large and small insurers alike is the idea of gaining better total return and book yield performance by employing external managers. This trend to outsource insurance assets began as investment managers sought to find expertise externally that they did not have internally. But today insurers are looking for external expertise in areas such as fixed income that have long been areas of internal management success. It’s a case it seems of finding the right manager for the job.

The challenge for asset managers servicing insurance company clients remains significant though. Insurers are by definition constrained investors, answering to many masters: rating agency, tax authorities, accounting regulators – not to mention the vagaries of US state insurance regulation. This series of events will pick up where last year’s trifecta left off, to discuss among other issues when an insurer should look outside for asset management expertise, which asset classes are most appropriate to outsource and how does regulation shape investment strategy for insurers.

Investing in the Solutions to Climate Change

Tuesday, October 21, 2008 - October 23, 2008

Climate change presents enormous risks and opportunities for investors. Climate risk is now embedded in an investment portfolio as companies worldwide face regulatory, legal, physical and competitive risks. But where there are risks, there are also opportunities. The next 50 years will require a massive shift to cleaner energy sources and technologies to avoid unmanageable climate change. One venture capitalist has called finding solutions to climate change “the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century.” A growing number of investors have begun taking steps to manage the risks and capture the opportunities posed by climate change. Plan sponsors are asking investment consultants and managers to analyze climate risks and opportunities. Interest in the clean tech sector –investing in clean air, water, fuels, alternatives energy and more –has increased dramatically. Investing in clean tech is offering competitive returns for investors while providing solutions to climate change. Assets invested in clean tech and related “sustainable” funds have grown steadily, with many institutional plans investing and issuing mandates in this area. Join us as we discuss these important investment issues and more at P&I’s & Ceres’s inaugural “Investing in the Solutions to Climate Change” Conference.

P&I and Nomura Securities 2nd Annual Global Pension Symposium - JAPAN

Tuesday, November 11, 2008 - November 12, 2008

Pension funds in Japan face many of the same problems as those in the US: underfunding, low interest rates, aging participant and beneficiary populations and the challenge of finding alpha. This conference and report will give asset managers the opportunity to highlight the many solutions that are being developed to address these issues, including new plan governance and fiduciary management structures, liability driven investing and portable alpha strategies. In searching for asset allocation solutions, many plan sponsors are considering new investment arenas such as emerging markets, infrastructure and commodities, while reconsidering some more familiar areas such as real estate, private equity and hedge funds. This is an opportunity to show how these many tools can be used to provide customized solutions for Japanese plan sponsors.

P&I's The Emergence of New Retirement Solutions - EAST COAST

Tuesday, December 2, 2008 - December 3, 2008

What will your pension plan look like in five years? In ten years? Companies have made and many will continue to make pension promises to their employees. How will the corporation meet these responsibilities in the future? Will the defined benefit plan be managed as a separate business within the corporate capital structure? Will it be outsourced? Will it be frozen? Will the company move to a hybrid structure, such as a cash balance plan, or will it only offer a defined contribution plan? The answer depends on so many intertwined factors, it may be almost impossible to come to a reasonable conclusion. But the question is on the table. And the variety of solutions – the new retirement solutions – are growing every day. Not all will be appropriate to all companies, but that’s part of the challenge: finding the right solution for a particular corporate situation. This series of conferences, sponsored supplements and webcasts will consider these questions from all angles, bringing together a group of creative and analytical thinkers to help plan sponsors tease apart the question of what your pension plan will look like in the future.

P&I's 2007 Transition Management Conference - EAST COAST

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Following the success of P&I’s 2006 Transition Management conference, this trifecta, with conferences in New York and San Francisco, as well as a supplement and webcasts, will address the increasingly complex world of transitioning assets. For any plan sponsor, managing a transition from one investmentmanager to another is always a difficult logistical challenge -- and rarely anyone’s first priority. While it is true that both asset allocation and fee negotiation have the greatest cost implications for plans, transition management is the third largest determinant of cost. And although costs have dropped significantly in the past decade, a poorly executed transition can cost a fund dozens or even hundreds of basis points. Any basis points lost in trade execution during a transition will need to be made up by the new managers, putting undue pressure on manager and plan alike.

Most plan sponsors understand the logic of hiring a transition manager to minimize trading costs during a transition. However, studies show that just under half of plan sponsors that undergo a transition perform a formal search for a transition manager. And many plan sponsors do not feel comfortable with the processes they have available for assessing the success of a given transition.

P&I's 2007 Absolute Return/Alpha Conference - EAST COAST

Monday, May 7, 2007 - May 9, 2007

Alpha – everyone wants it; few find it consistently. That is today’s investing reality. Many in the investment community claim that the search for alpha is a zero-sum game: if you capture alpha, then someone else has left it on the table. But investing is rarely that simple, as each investor, pension plan, fund endowment or foundation has a different investment horizon and risk tolerance. Yet the focus on alpha seems to preoccupy all investors, whether they know it or not. But what is the right approach for you and your pension plan?

This series of conference events, webcasts and advertising supplements will focus on the alpha puzzle – how to find it, how to keep it and how to make sure that your pursuit of alpha fits the risk appetite of your plan. It will build on the base of knowledge developed in last year’s events and educate plan sponsors on this fast-growing area of pension investing. For most plan sponsors, the search for alpha starts with the basics – understanding how their investment managers generate alpha and beta, and making sure that they are accurately attributing each.

P&I's 2007 Liability Driven Investing Conference - WEST COAST

Monday, September 17, 2007 - September 19, 2007

As the pension world shifts from an asset-only focus to an asset-liability focus, most plans are considering and many are actually implementing some version of liability driven investing. It’s a complex topic with implications for not only plan asset allocation and risk budgeting, but also overall plan design. As more US plans embrace the strategy, asset managers are refining their product offerings to match the needs of the wide variety of plans that seek LDI strategies. Although the principle may be the same, the execution can be different for plans that are underfunded, overfunded or fully funded. This series of events and reports focuses on the rapidly developing LDI market in the US and how this strategy is helping to solve some of the issues that all pension plans face, such as duration mismatch and funding volatility.

P&I's 2007 DC/410K West Coast Conference

Sunday, October 7, 2007 - October 9, 2007

P&I's 2007 Global Pension Symposium - JAPAN

Wednesday, November 14, 2007 - November 15, 2007

Pension funds in Japan face many of the same problems as those in the US, the UK, the Netherlands and other industrialized nations: underfunding, low interest rates, aging participant and beneficiary populations and difficulties in acquiring the necessary level of returns. And if this were not enough of a litany of woe, 2007 is the year when Japanese baby boomers begin to retire in large numbers.

In this conference, Japanese and global pension and asset management experts discuss the current responses to the above issues and how they can be applied in Japan. Although each country has its own pension investing constraints, which can include regulatory and cultural attitudes, some principles and processes have been gaining best practice status across the world. This supplement and upcoming conference bring them to the forefront.

P&I's 2006 Transition Management - EAST COAST

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Plan sponsor usage of transition managers continues to grow, as more become convinced of the benefits of specialist project management and risk control. Periods of market turmoil do have the unintended consequence of highlighting these benefits very clearly – but probably only to those in the midst of transitions without the aid of professional support. Transition management, even as it has become more sophisticated, is rarely a top agenda item for plan sponsors. This series of conferences, sponsored supplements and webcasts is an opportunity to convince the unconvinced, to explain the myriad cost and risk benefits that a professionally managed transition can bring to plan sponsors.

P&I's 2006 Liability Driven Investing Conference

Monday, September 25, 2006 - September 27, 2006

As the pension world shifts from an asset-only focus to an asset-liability focus, most plans are considering and many are actually implementing some version of liability driven investing. It’s a complex topic with implications for not only plan asset allocation and risk budgeting, but also overall plan design. As more US plans embrace the strategy, asset managers are refining their product offerings to match the needs of the wide variety of plans that seek LDI strategies. Although the principle may be the same, the execution can be different for plans that are underfunded, overfunded or fully funded. This series of events and reports focuses on the rapidly developing LDI market in the US and how this strategy is helping to solve some of the issues that all pension plans face, such as duration mismatch and funding volatility.