PENSION FUND MANAGEMENT

This new paper by Rob Bauer, Martijn Cremers, and Rik Frehen uses the CEM pension fund data set to document the cost structure and performance of a large sample of US pension funds. It finds that small-cap mandates of defined-benefit funds have outperformed their benchmarks by about 3 per cent [...]

This research examines the effect of tail risk, or extreme risk, on pension funds, concluding that all extreme scenarios have an immediate negative impact that can significantly jeopardise the smooth functioning of a pension scheme, probably as much as the other non-extreme risks.

Pension funds in Australia allocate a higher proportion of assets to shares than pension funds in any other country, according to a survey which looked at the asset allocation of pension funds in selected OECD countries.

In seeking to minimise pension risk, many companies have chosen to freeze or close defined benefit pension plan in the hope such an approach might give them time to adjust and increase corporate value. In a recent article published in the Financial Analysts Journal, Brendan McFarland, Gaobo Pang and Mark [...]

Governments are among the few agencies that can help the private sector hedge against the increasing problem of aggregate longevity risk. David Blake, Tom Boardman, Andrew Cairns and Kevin Dowd from the Pensions Institute at Cass Business School urge governments to issue longevity bonds as soon as possible

The financial crisis has placed defined contribution (DC) pension provision firmly under the spotlight. The dramatic falls in fund values observed for most members during 2008 have been drawing attention to the risks inherent in DC pension provision and focusing attention on how employees, employers and plan fiduciaries can better [...]