Insight
Throwing Darts in the Dark: Reasons to Review Your DB Plan Glide Path
For an employer, the ultimate goal of a defined benefit (DB) plan is to provide the retirement benefits promised to retirees. To accomplish this goal of funding those benefits and the related costs of providing them, an investment portfolio must generate sufficient returns—or a targeted rate of return (ROR). Asset allocation, or the practice of…
Read MoreReframing Our Perspective
“What I am looking for is a blessing not in disguise.” Jerome K. Jerome In response to aphorisms like “adversity builds character,” and “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” is the honest plea from 19th century humorist Jerome K. Jerome, “What I am looking for is a blessing not in disguise.” While hard to…
Read MoreGlide Path 2023: Do Headwinds Require a Change in the Plan?
The headwinds (and headlines) of 2022 included this: 2022 was a year of volatility and concern over the prospects of a recession in 2023. However, for many defined benefit plans, those headwinds were favorable in the way they affected plan funded status, or the measure of plan assets to meet future obligations. Funded status is…
Read MoreAgreement at the Eleventh Hour: SECURE Act 2.0 Signed into Law and What it Means for Your Plan
On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed into law the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill that included the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement (SECURE) Act 2.0. The act expands on provisions enacted with SECURE Act 1.0 in 2019. Three separate bills, one passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and two approved by the…
Read MoreCrash: Avoid the Most Common Accidents by Planning for Your Takeoff and Landing
Data from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reveal that 76% of aviation accidents occur during takeoff or in the final approach and landing.[i] The greater number by far occur at the end of the flight, during the final approach and landing. Clearly, beginnings and endings are challenging and require sound processes to avoid unexpected…
Read MoreThe Power of the PENsion: LDI in 2023 – Batten Down the Hatches
As we look back on the economic volatility of 2022 and face a possible recession in 2023, pension plan sponsors could be unnerved. Consider where we find ourselves at the close of 2022: Add to these dreary measures: It’s been a difficult year, and we’ve few reasons to expect smooth sailing in 2023. But the…
Read MoreThe Other Shoe to Drop
In the early 1900s, New York City tenement buildings were poorly constructed with thin walls and ceilings and bedrooms stacked on top of one another. As the resident on the floor above you would prepare for bed by taking off his shoes, you would hear one shoe drop to the floor. What would come next?…
Read MoreThe Power of the PENsion: Where There’s a Window – Pension Plan Sponsors Moving to Act Before a De-Risking Window Closes
The equity and bond markets’ fall in recent months has captured the headlines and attention of anyone invested in a retirement plan. But as the rising rate environment has shaken the markets, it has helped improve the funding status of some pension plans and may have opened a window of opportunity for defined benefit (DB)…
Read MoreGilt Trip: What Plan Sponsors Can Learn from the U.K. Pension Fund Crisis
Pension plan sponsors across the United Kingdom endured a harrowing week in late September as an unexpected spike in long gilt (or U.K. government bond) yields exposed their levered hedging programs to the brink of insolvency. Some sponsors went to bed feeling secure about their diversified plans (with seemingly prudent hedges) and woke the next…
Read MoreFlipped Out over Fiduciary Liability Insurance?
In 2020, more than 200 class action lawsuits were filed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). It was the high water mark for actions targeting the alleged mismanagement of 401(k) and 403(b) defined contribution retirement plans. A total of 125 such actions were filed in 2021, and subject experts expect another 75 to…
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