Webinars

October 11 | Institutional investors are not simply investing in real assets, some are considering them a core portfolio holding. Their inherently defensive nature and potential benefits, including stable risk-adjusted returns, inflation resilience and diversification, have put real assets in the spotlight. From infrastructure, both physical and digital, to metals and mining and renewable energy, a host of segments provide timely and selective opportunities for asset owners to consider.

Our panel of specialists takes a deep dive into the underlying drivers of performance across real assets and shares their current areas of focus, while navigating market challenges. Supportive legislation and developing technology are additional considerations, as well as a growing focus on sustainability alongside financial returns.

October 4 | Investing in Emerging Markets (EM) sovereign bonds has been mainstream for nearly 25 years. Over that period, the entire EM investable universe has grown in breadth and depth to become one of the most intricate in the entire fixed income space. Its intricacy originates from a wide range of risk factors across geography, quality, and duration that can offer interesting alpha opportunities to investors when understood and properly differentiated.

In the webinar MetLife Investment Manager Emerging Markets portfolio managers Thomas Smith and Todd Howard will dive into the current investment environment for EM fixed income and specifically focus on areas we believe alpha can be captured through differentiation.

September 27 | Retirement plan advisers are approaching DC plan design in innovative ways as they work with their plan sponsor clients. Recognizing that plan participants face complex challenges, including inflation, rising interest rates and continued economic uncertainty, they are embracing new product offerings as they assess investment diversification, employee savings behavior, automation and approaches to education that drive positive participant outcomes.

Our panel of industry experts shares the latest thinking on the elements of DC plan design, including customizing the QDIA, refinements to automated features, the use of data to drive engagement and personalization and embracing participant behavior to craft successful solutions to employees’ retirement security.

Tuesday, September 19, 2023 | As employers of all sizes face a talent shortage, they are zooming in on the defined contribution plan as a key benefit to aid with employee retention and improve overall employee satisfaction. How are small-, mid- and large sized DC plans adding to the product lineup and improving communications to meet employee needs for overall financial wellness and ensure they can maximize income in retirement?

This panel will reframe the conversation to meet today’s challenges and provide RPAs and advisors with best practices and solutions.

Wednesday, September 20, 2023 | DC plan sponsors are seeking retirement income solutions that address key risks participants face in retirement but alsoprovide flexibility to meet participants’ unique needs. However, the variety of options—each with distinctive features—can create a challenge to compare them on a level playing field.

AB’s latest research, Leveling the Retirement Income Playing Field: A Comprehensive Framework for Evaluating Diverse Lifetime Income Solutions, is designed to help. Their framework evaluates potential outcomes for different lifetime income solutions while accounting for their costs and risks—many of which can’t be seen on the surface. And it’s all done through the lens of the individual participant.

Please join us as we discuss these issues to help you along the path of education to implementation. Jennifer DeLong,Head—Defined Contribution, along with Andrew Stumacher, Managing Director—Custom Defined Contribution Solutions, will share insights on what participants want and need in retirement—financial security. Christopher Nikolich, Head of Glide Path Strategies (US) and an architect of AB's research, will present a holistic framework examining these key findings:

•    Many participants may run out of money in retirement if they don’t have explicit lifetime income insurance.

•    Incorporating insurance into a participant’s asset allocation may improve sustainable withdrawal rates in retirement.

•    Certain forms of insurance can produce “side effects” for participants, such as growth opportunity cost and mortality risk.

•    A framework to evaluate different income solutions must assess the individual rather than the average participant; measure total costs—not just explicit fees—and consider both income and balances.

•    Because insurance enables higher exposure to growth assets, longevity risk can be significantly reduced without an incremental cost, on average, versus a traditional target-date fund.

Asset allocation considerations for Public DB Plans

Wednesday, September 13, 2023 | Following the Great Financial Crisis, investors grappled with over a decade of near zero-interest rate policies and the implications for their portfolios across asset classes, traditional and alternative. Asset allocations naturally shifted as a reflection of this economic backdrop. However, that economic backdrop has rapidly reversed course by way of accelerated repricing of cash rates, a reversal of easy monetary policy, and for the first time since 2008, the potential ability to generate returns in bond markets aligned to typical public plan performance objectives.

This change triggers the question – do current fixed income allocations reflect today’s economic environment and expectations for the next economic cycle?

In this webinar, T. Rowe Price multi-sector credit Portfolio Manager Saurabh Sud and Lowell Yura, Head of Multi-Asset Solutions North America and Portfolio Manager will discuss recent survey findings and public DB client trends that bring into focus key elements of fixed income portfolios that we observe today, the potential for unintended risks to be embedded, and a framework to help guide these considerations as investors revisit the potential for fixed income to play a larger role in portfolios.

Wednesday, September 6, 2023 | For endowments and foundations – whether educational institutions, associations or charities – strategic portfolio management is built on plan objectives, spending policy, liquidity needs and risk management. How are OCIOs helping with tactical adjustments and optimal exposures for non-profits in the current market environment?

For hospital systems and healthcare organizations, OCIOs need to pursue a dynamic and multi-asset investment approach to their long-term operating portfolio, retirement assets, insurance portfolio and foundation assets. How are OCIOs helping them deliver on strategic objectives, enhancing their overall risk-return profile and providing additional bundled services?

With many corporate pension plans enjoying positive funded status, how has their investment strategy evolved as they navigate the current macro environment? Depending on their situation and objective, plans are looking to minimize volatility for return-seeking assets, add diversification via alternative assets and private markets, pursue enhanced liability-driven investing, and explore and prepare for pension risk transfer.

At this timely webinar, OCIO experts dig into the current investment priorities and approaches that defined benefit plans are pursuing to meet their obligations to pension beneficiaries. Our panelists also share how OCIOs are delivering value-added services, including thought leadership and education, and providing customized solutions that meet specific plan needs.

Defined contribution plans, designed as diversified, long-term portfolios that can weather a host of macro conditions, continue to evolve. Plan sponsors today are making subtle, but significant, structural and investment-related changes to build in even greater financial resilience for participants, broaden benefits and boost plan engagement. As sponsors focus on strengthening their plans, they’re incorporating greater diversification, adding alternatives and broadening fixed income. They’re also offering custom portfolios that combine target-date funds and managed accounts. Retiree asset retention is another key theme that allows plan sponsors to retain scale as they consider and adopt a range of retirement income solutions.

Our panel of industry experts shares the latest thinking on the DC investment menu and plan enhancements aimed at bolstering retirement security.