Skip to main content
MENU
Subscribe
  • Subscribe
  • Account
  • LOGIN
  • Topics
    • Alternatives
    • Consultants
    • Coronavirus
    • Courts
    • Defined Contribution
    • ESG
    • ETFs
    • Hedge Funds
    • Industry Voices
    • Investing
    • Money Management
    • Opinion
    • Partner Content
    • Pension Funds
    • Private Equity
    • Real Estate
    • Russia-Ukraine War
    • SECURE Act 2.0
    • Special Reports
    • White Papers
  • Rankings & Awards
    • 1,000 Largest Retirement Plans
    • Top-Performing Managers
    • Largest Money Managers
    • DC Money Managers
    • DC Record Keepers
    • Largest Hedge Fund Managers
    • World's Largest Retirement Funds
    • Best Places to Work in Money Management
    • Excellence & Innovation Awards
    • WPS Innovation Awards
    • Eddy Awards
  • ETFs
    • Latest ETF News
    • Fund Screener
    • Education Center
    • Equities
    • Fixed Income
    • Commodities
    • Actively Managed
    • Alternatives
    • ESG Rated
  • ESG
    • Latest ESG News
    • The Institutional Investor’s Guide to ESG Investing
    • ESG Sustainability - Gaining Momentum
    • Climate Change: The Inescapable Opportunity
    • Impact Investing
    • 2022 ESG Investing Conference
    • ESG Rated ETFs
  • Defined Contribution
    • Latest DC News
    • DC Money Manager Rankings
    • DC Record Keeper Rankings
    • Innovations in DC
    • Trends in DC: Focus on Retirement Income
    • 2022 Defined Contribution East Conference
    • 2022 DC Investment Lineup Conference
  • Searches & Hires
    • Latest Searches & Hires News
    • Searches & Hires Database
    • RFPs
  • Performance Data
    • P&I Research Center
    • Earnings Tracker
    • Endowment Returns Tracker
    • Corporate Pension Contribution Tracker
    • Pension Fund Returns Tracker
    • Pension Risk Transfer Database
    • Future of Investments Research Series
    • Charts & Infographics
    • Polls
  • Careers
  • Events
    • View All Conferences
    • View All Webinars
    • 2022 Retirement Income Conference
    • 2022 Managing Pension Risk & Liabilities
    • 2022 WorldPensionSummit
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Print
October 14, 2013 01:00 AM

Keeping pace with the constant change

Chris J. Battaglia
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    Christopher J. Battaglia is VP/Group publisher for Pensions & Investments

    My first recollection of the words “retirement” and “pension” was sometime in the mid-1970s. My grandfather, John Battaglia, an Italian immigrant who was born in 1912 and moved to New York City in 1928, was about to retire from the American Can Co. after more than 40 years of service. John retired in 1977, began to collect his monthly pension and then, sadly, passed away in 1978 at 66. Although he was able to collect his coveted pension benefit for a short period, he essentially worked his entire life.

    The average life expectancy for a white male born in 1912 was 51.9 years, so I suppose John Battaglia was fortunate to live 14.1 years longer than the actuaries had forecasted. The fact is, on average, most people retiring in the 1970s who collected a pension didn't live well into their 70s, 80s or 90s. That has changed. A 66-year-old male living in the U.S. who retires this year can expect to live another 19 years.

    We are not only getting older, but also there are more of us getting older. The number of people 65 and older in the U.S. in 1970 — 20 million — was about half of what it is today. You can transfer those numbers across most of the developed world with small differences from country to country, Japan, of course, being the exception as a country that has more centenarians than any other place on the planet.

    The future of retirement is certainly more complicated today than it was when Pensions & Investments was conceived by its founders at our parent company, Crain Communications Inc. Today, longevity risk management and retirement income are becoming part of the holistic solutions considered by retirement plan executives, consultants and investment managers, as we seek to provide a more secure retirement for plan participants. Investment innovations such as custom target-date funds and liquid alternatives, as well as innovation in plan design that provides auto enrollment and auto escalation, all are working toward improving outcomes for participants.

    The first biweekly issue of the newspaper was published on Oct. 29, 1973, just about a year before the Employee Retirement Income Security Act was signed into law by then-President Gerald Ford. Our mission was very straightforward: We were to report the news on a growing pool of assets dedicated to the funding of corporate and public pension plans. That pool of assets was $283 billion in 1973. Today, total U.S. retirement market assets exceed $12 trillion.

    During the past several decades, P&I widened its editorial lens to include the growth of defined contribution assets, endowments and foundations, and sovereign wealth funds. The business of money management also became an important area of coverage for our readers. As business expanded globally, P&I adjusted its coverage to sync with the global growth of asset managers. Last October, we opened an editorial bureau in Singapore so we could be more useful to our readers by providing news and information on the fast-growing pools of professionally managed assets in Asia, along with the Asian asset management community.

    As we reported the news and challenges of global retirement assets, we also expanded our delivery methods for reaching new audiences. Digital intraday news alerts, more than a dozen topic-specific e-mail newsletters and a mobile content delivery strategy that includes a data-driven app, P&IQ, help our readers do their jobs better than ever before.

    I believe our high-tech approach to content delivery also has driven a heightened awareness and growing need for high-touch ways to learn about what other investors are doing to better manage their funds. P&I's conferences allow thousands of plan sponsors, endowment and foundation executives, consultants and money managers to share ideas and work on problem-solving together. Wherever there is a large pool of professionally managed assets, P&I is there doing our best to provide information, news, data, research and community. All with the intent of staying true to our original guiding mission in 1973, which is to look after the best interests of asset owners first, because what's best for them is also what's best for the participants of global retirement plans, and that's also what's best for the global business of managing retirement assets.

    The retirement industry and money management businesses have come a long way since the days of the American Can Co.'s pension fund. Whatever the next 40 years bring, you can count on P&I to stay true to our core mission: doing our best to help you do your job better.

    Related Articles
    40th anniversary
    Forty years of Pensions & Investments
    Witnesses to a revolution
    Trading the pencil for a smartphone
    Money managers' assets just keep growing
    A long history of reaction
    Not your father's retirement
    Public pension funds slip into driver's seat
    Learning from disaster
    A brief history, and a very promising future
    Continued challenge will be the only certainty
    Witnesses to a revolution
    Trading the pencil for a smartphone
    Money managers' assets just keep growing
    A long history of reaction
    Not your father's retirement
    Public pension funds slip into driver's seat
    Learning from disaster
    A brief history, and a very promising future
    Recommended for You
    Read the print edition of P&I
    Read the print edition of P&I
    How low is low? Projections say it's not low enough
    How low is low? Projections say it's not low enough
    FINRA honors Wharton's Olivia Mitchell with Ketchum Prize
    FINRA honors Wharton's Olivia Mitchell with Ketchum Prize
    ESG: Sustainability - Gaining Momentum
    Sponsored Content: ESG: Sustainability - Gaining Momentum

    Reader Poll

    June 6, 2022
    SEE MORE POLLS >
    Sponsored
    White Papers
    Nearing the finish line: Ideas on end-state investing for corporate DB plans
    The Meaning of "Portfolio Intelligence"
    Credit Indices: Closing the Fixed Income Evolutionary Gap
    Forever in Style: Benchmarking with the Morningstar® Broad Style Indexes℠
    Crossroads: Politics, Inflation, & Bonds
    Is there a mid-cap gap in your DC plan?
    View More
    Sponsored Content
    Partner Content
    The Industrialization of ESG Investment
    For institutional investors, ETFs can make meeting liquidity needs easier
    Gold: the most effective commodity investment
    2021 Investment Outlook | Investing Beyond the Pandemic: A Reset for Portfolios
    Ten ways retirement plan professionals add value to plan sponsors
    Gold: an efficient hedge
    View More
    E-MAIL NEWSLETTERS

    Sign up and get the best of News delivered straight to your email inbox, free of charge. Choose your news – we will deliver.

    Subscribe Today
    June 20, 2022 page one

    Get access to the news, research and analysis of events affecting the retirement and institutional money management businesses from a worldwide network of reporters and editors.

    Subscribe
    Connect With Us
    • RSS
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn

    Our Mission

    To consistently deliver news, research and analysis to the executives who manage the flow of funds in the institutional investment market.

    About Us

    Main Office
    685 Third Avenue
    Tenth Floor
    New York, NY 10017-4036

    Chicago Office
    130 E. Randolph St.
    Suite 3200
    Chicago, IL 60601

    Contact Us

    Careers at Crain

    About Pensions & Investments

     

    Advertising
    • Media Kit
    • P&I Content Solutions
    • P&I Careers | Post a Job
    • Reprints & Permissions
    Resources
    • Subscribe
    • Newsletters
    • FAQ
    • P&I Research Center
    • Site map
    • Staff Directory
    Legal
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Request
    Pensions & Investments
    Copyright © 1996-2022. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • Topics
      • Alternatives
      • Consultants
      • Coronavirus
      • Courts
      • Defined Contribution
      • ESG
      • ETFs
      • Hedge Funds
      • Industry Voices
      • Investing
      • Money Management
      • Opinion
      • Partner Content
      • Pension Funds
      • Private Equity
      • Real Estate
      • Russia-Ukraine War
      • SECURE Act 2.0
      • Special Reports
      • White Papers
    • Rankings & Awards
      • 1,000 Largest Retirement Plans
      • Top-Performing Managers
      • Largest Money Managers
      • DC Money Managers
      • DC Record Keepers
      • Largest Hedge Fund Managers
      • World's Largest Retirement Funds
      • Best Places to Work in Money Management
      • Excellence & Innovation Awards
      • WPS Innovation Awards
      • Eddy Awards
    • ETFs
      • Latest ETF News
      • Fund Screener
      • Education Center
      • Equities
      • Fixed Income
      • Commodities
      • Actively Managed
      • Alternatives
      • ESG Rated
    • ESG
      • Latest ESG News
      • The Institutional Investor’s Guide to ESG Investing
      • ESG Sustainability - Gaining Momentum
      • Climate Change: The Inescapable Opportunity
      • Impact Investing
      • 2022 ESG Investing Conference
      • ESG Rated ETFs
    • Defined Contribution
      • Latest DC News
      • DC Money Manager Rankings
      • DC Record Keeper Rankings
      • Innovations in DC
      • Trends in DC: Focus on Retirement Income
      • 2022 Defined Contribution East Conference
      • 2022 DC Investment Lineup Conference
    • Searches & Hires
      • Latest Searches & Hires News
      • Searches & Hires Database
      • RFPs
    • Performance Data
      • P&I Research Center
      • Earnings Tracker
      • Endowment Returns Tracker
      • Corporate Pension Contribution Tracker
      • Pension Fund Returns Tracker
      • Pension Risk Transfer Database
      • Future of Investments Research Series
      • Charts & Infographics
      • Polls
    • Careers
    • Events
      • View All Conferences
      • View All Webinars
      • 2022 Retirement Income Conference
      • 2022 Managing Pension Risk & Liabilities
      • 2022 WorldPensionSummit