Skip to main content
pilogo-NEW
Subscribe
  • Subscribe
  • My Account
  • login
  • NEWS
    • Alternatives
    • Consultants
    • Defined Contribution
    • Frontlines
    • Hedge Funds
    • Investing / Portfolio Strategies
    • Money Management
    • Pension Funds
    • People Moves
    • Private Equity
    • Real Estate
    • Searches & Hires News
    • Special Reports
    • BlackFin closes third fund at €985 million, above its target
      Alerian acquires S-Network Global Indexes
      OMERS Ventures picks Uber veteran
      Neil Sheth
      More asset owners clamoring for multistrategy private credit
    • Mercer appoints global alternatives leader for wealth business
      KPMG offloads pension advisory unit to private equity firm
      Ascensus snaps up Nyhart in latest deal
      Willis Towers Watson exec promoted to lead retirement unit
    • Drew Carrington
      New data questions conventional wisdom
      Kathleen Long
      Plans enticing 401(k) savings even without employer contribution
      Joe Caldera
      Group acting to plug a gap in retirement
      Jean Young
      Analysis on stretching the match shows it doesn't work as intended
    • Ray Dalio book
      Dalio releases illustrated version of ‘Principles’ book
      Youngjae Ryu
      Korea Corporate Governance Forum set to debut Dec. 12
      MOney maze
      PLSA has tips for trustees of U.K. retirement funds
      Norm Champ
      Norm Champ shifts his focus to financial literacy in latest book
    • Macro hedge fund Stone Milliner shutting down
      James Medeiros
      Hedge fund managers are warming up to custom funds
      Louis Bacon
      Moore Capital's Louis Bacon to quit money management business
      James Yeh
      Citadel promotes James Yeh to president and co-CIO
    • CalPERS’ committee mulls new investment policies
      ESG worked in 2019, but questions remain for long term
      Wyoming investment board picks 2 for small-cap equities
      Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement looking for investment consultant
    • Mihir Worah
      PIMCO CIO for asset allocation and real assets to retire
      Icahn lays off workers as firm decamps to Miami
      Pacific Life hires head for new institutional arm
      1251 Capital acquires majority stake in Ziegler Capital
    • CalPERS’ committee mulls new investment policies
      Australian regulator lists underperforming funds
      PPF 7800 index funding deficit drops in November
      CDC, Laerernes commit to Amundi, EIB green bond program
    • Mihir Worah
      PIMCO CIO for asset allocation and real assets to retire
      OMERS Ventures picks Uber veteran
      Mercer appoints global alternatives leader for wealth business
      Apollo Global taps Bain Capital veteran to lead its Japan business
    • Parthenon Capital raises $2 billion with latest private equity fund
      Investindustrial raises €3.75 billion with seventh European buyout fund
      Sightway Capital closes first fund with $1.2 billion
      Private equity practices aired at House hearing
    • Schroders appoints real estate capital partners head
      CBRE acquires U.K. real estate debt investment business Laxfield Capital
      USAA to sell controlling interest in real estate unit
      Cold storage
      A hot time for those seeking the cold
    • Washington State Retirement hires Milliman as actuarial auditor
      Howard County allocates $7 million to venture capital
      Wisconsin deferred comp chooses Wilshire to analyze stable value options
      Illinois Teachers doles out $665 million to 5 alts managers
    • The best places to work in money management 2019
      Investment Consultants
      The 2019 Excellence & Innovation Awards
      Top-performing managers Q3 2019
  • Data
    • Research Center
    • Searches & Hires Database
    • Searches & Hires News
    • RFPs
    • Charts / Infographics
    • Sponsored Research
    • Trackers
    • Q3 2019 money manager M&A activity summary
      Q3 2019 legal overview report
      Q3 2019 searches and hires overview report
      P&I resources can give a leg up in winning new business
    • Washington State Retirement hires Milliman as actuarial auditor
      Howard County allocates $7 million to venture capital
      Wisconsin deferred comp chooses Wilshire to analyze stable value options
      Illinois Teachers doles out $665 million to 5 alts managers
    • Washington State Retirement hires Milliman as actuarial auditor
      Howard County allocates $7 million to venture capital
      Wisconsin deferred comp chooses Wilshire to analyze stable value options
      Illinois Teachers doles out $665 million to 5 alts managers
    • Transitional Manager Services
      457b DC PENSION PLAN
      Overlay and Passive Risk Balanced Investment Manager
      In-Kind Distribution Management Services (Private Markets) Provider Search
    • ESG worked in 2019, but questions remain for long term
      Latin America preparing for aging population
      To cheap large-caps go the spoils
      Only place to go is ... down
    • Institutional Investors: Shared Expectations, Divergent Paths
      Global Investor Study 2016
      Workplace Financial Wellness
    • U.S. Endowment Returns Tracker
      Pension Fund Returns Tracker
      Earnings Tracker
      Corporate Pension Contribution Tracker
  • Insights
    • Opinion
    • White Papers
    • Industry Voices
    • Other Views
    • Partner Content
    • Publisher's Update
    • Multiemployer fund legislation cartoon
      Multiemployer compromises needed
      SEC cartoon
      SEC rules need measured response
      High hopes for consistency and guidance from Scalia
      DC West poster
      Financial wellness gets spot at the table
    • Strengthen Your Core: Flexible Multi-Sector Strategies for a Low-Yield World
      WisdomTree Yield Enhanced U.S. Aggregate Bond Fund
      Automation, lower fees driving institutional interest in factor investing and smart beta strategies
      A Great Time to Be Agnostic?
    • Gerald Cooper
      Commentary: Single-asset deals – a structure benefiting GPs and LPs alike
      Gordon Latter, Timur Kaya Yontar and Frank Benham
      Commentary: Plan sponsors, do you know your credit risk?
      Timothy Boomer
      Commentary: For plan sponsors, derivatives shouldn’t be a dirty word
      Martin Vogt
      Commentary: Renewables investing makes inroads in the Caribbean, Central America
    • Commentary: Stronger partnership needed between shareholders, managers
      Commentary: Revised statement on corporate purpose misses the mark
      Commentary: The associated costs of DB terminations
      Commentary: Support the Butch Lewis Act
    • P&I Content Solutions
      EDHEC Research For Institutional Money Management - December 2019
      P&I Content Solutions
      Dynamic derisking: How an OCIO can help plan sponsors manage funding volatility
      P&I Content Solutions
      OCIO graduates from education phase
      P&I Content Solutions
      How to navigate the choppy investment waters expected in 2020
    • Everything Must Change
      Tomatoes & Investments
      Baby, it’s hot outside!
  • Multimedia
    • Videos
    • Webinars
    • Polls
    • Slideshows
    • Charts / Infographics
    • Excellence & Innovation Awards 2019: Laura Mittelstaedt
      DC West 2019
      Excellence & Innovation Awards 2019: Lisa Joe
      DC West 2019: Empower Retirement's Doug Peterson on cybersecurity
    • Finding the Positive in Negative Interest Rates
      How to Position Institutional Portfolios to Capitalize on China’s Growth
      Financial Wellness: Gaining an edge with plan sponsors
      Trends in Hedge Fund Investing
    • POLL: Creating a great workplace
      POLL: Shared values between money managers and plan sponsors
      POLL: Climate change's impact on investing
      POLL: Ultralong-term U.S. Treasury bonds
    • view gallery
      85 photos
      Best places to work in money management 2019
      view gallery
      21 photos
      The world's 20 largest retirement funds
      view gallery
      11 photos
      Top 10 DC money managers
      Top 15 managers by worldwide institutional AUM
    • ESG worked in 2019, but questions remain for long term
      Latin America preparing for aging population
  • Events
    • Conferences
    • Webinars
    • East Coast DC Conference
      Fixed Income & Credit
      DC Investment Lineup
      ESG Investing
    • Finding the Positive in Negative Interest Rates
      How to Position Institutional Portfolios to Capitalize on China’s Growth
      Financial Wellness: Gaining an edge with plan sponsors
      Trends in Hedge Fund Investing
  • Careers
  • Research Center
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Custom Media
May 14, 2018 01:00 AM

A Goldilocks moment has plan sponsors taking risk off the table

Sponsored Content
This content was paid for by an advertiser and created in collaboration with Crain's Custom Content.
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    OWAIS RANA

    MANAGING DIRECTOR

    CONNING

    More defined benefit plan sponsors are taking advantage of their pensions' improved funded status — thanks to the bull market in stocks and rising interest rates — by moving assets out of equities and into fixed-income securities. Their goal: Reduce balance-sheet volatility and better match assets with liabilities.

    “Based on conversations I've had over the last year or so, clients are determined to derisk,” said Owais Rana, head of pensions LDI solutions at Conning. “They want to take investment risk off the table by making their portfolios more liability driven.”

    According to Conning's monthly Pension Funded Status Tracker, the average corporate defined benefit plan was 85% funded at the end of March, down slightly from 86% in February, but up from 82% in March 2017.

    Selling equities and buying fixed income sounds straightforward, but it is not always a simple decision.

    “Companies understand the merits of pension risk management, but a CFO may not want to reduce the company's earnings by lowering the expected return on plan assets,” Rana explained. “When you reduce your equity allocation in favor of bonds, the expected return assumption — which is really phantom income, as it is uncertain — is also reduced.”

    He added that pension risk management should supersede this artificial earnings contribution phenomena, since pension plans are not part of companies' main business. However, even in these cases, a balance can be struck between the desire to reduce funded-status volatility and the impact on expected return assumptions.

    “Sponsors need to think more broadly about the available instruments,” Rana said. “You may be able to achieve that objective by using derivatives to maintain exposure to growth assets, such as equity markets, and release capital from the equity allocation to buy long-duration corporate bonds that hedge the plan's liabilities. It's a more efficient use of capital.”

    But with equities still running relatively strong this year, despite a few bumps, and a pickup in volatility, many plan sponsors are hesitant to take too much risk off the table. However, risk of an equity market correction also seems elevated, and a correction could thwart plans to take advantage of improvements in funded status.

    What's an institutional investor to do? Rana suggests that clients consider the impact on the plan's funded status in a worst-case scenario.

    “I say to clients: You've seen a surge in the stock market and an increase in the long end of bond yields. How much more are you betting on that trend?” Rana said. “There may be a little more room on the upside, but there is a lot more to lose on the downside if the tide turns. So think about locking in some of the gains.

    “We also tell clients that if they strongly believe that long-term interest rates will continue to rise, then we could use interest rate triggers as a derisking tool,” he added. “As interest rates go up and hit trigger points, we sell out of equities and buy bonds. And any new contributions made to the plan after that also go toward buying bonds.” ■

    CO115480510.PDF

    conning final

    CO115480510.PDF >
    sponsored content
    Events
     
     
    Advertisement
    White Papers
    A Great Time to Be Agnostic?
    Shedding the Home-Country Bias
    Automation, lower fees driving institutional interest in factor investing and s…
    WisdomTree Yield Enhanced U.S. Aggregate Bond Fund
    Strengthen Your Core: Flexible Multi-Sector Strategies for a Low-Yield World
    View More
    Sponsored Content
    Partner Content
    How Big Data Delivers Solutions to ESG Investors
    How a Multisector Credit Approach Can Lower Risk, Increase Diversification
    ESG Investing Supplement
    Know Your DB Plan’s ‘Persona’ to Help Make the Right Strategy Choices
    Leveling the playing field for public employee retirement security
    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

    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.

    pilogo-NEW
    About Us

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

    Chicago Office
    150 N. Michigan Ave.
    Chicago, IL 60601

    Contact Us

    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
    Pensions & Investments
    Copyright © 1996-2019. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • NEWS
      • Alternatives
      • Consultants
      • Defined Contribution
      • Frontlines
      • Hedge Funds
      • Investing / Portfolio Strategies
      • Money Management
      • Pension Funds
      • People Moves
      • Private Equity
      • Real Estate
      • Searches & Hires News
      • Special Reports
    • Data
      • Research Center
      • Searches & Hires Database
      • Searches & Hires News
      • RFPs
      • Charts / Infographics
      • Sponsored Research
      • Trackers
    • Insights
      • Opinion
      • White Papers
      • Industry Voices
      • Other Views
      • Partner Content
      • Publisher's Update
    • Multimedia
      • Videos
      • Webinars
      • Polls
      • Slideshows
      • Charts / Infographics
    • Events
      • Conferences
      • Webinars
    • Careers
    • Research Center