Jacki Ellis, Chris Plater, Charles Wu: Running a decumulation portfolio

Dispersion of opinion remains alive and well on the topic of how best to approach accumulation vs decumulation investing, but how different are these two regimes in reality? What does a decumulation investment process look like?  Furthermore, what does a decumulation process look like in a defined contribution regime, and in a guaranteed regime?  What are the perils, the assumptions, and the impossibilities, all of which need to be balanced? This is a practitioner’s discussion on the realities of running a portfolio with structural decumulation.

Speakers: Charles Wu, deputy chief investment officer and general manager DC investments, State Super, Chris Plater, chief executive and chief investment officer, Life, Challenger and Jacki Ellis, portfolio manager retirement strategies, First State Super

Moderator: David Bell, executive director, The Conexus Institute

Length: 33 mins

Sponsored Content

Leave a Comment

NZ Super cuts benchmark return expectation on US valuation concerns

NZ Super cuts benchmark return expectation on US valuation concerns

A view that the US stock market is overvalued and equity risk premia will be lower over the long term has driven New Zealand Super to lower the return expectations for its reference portfolio following its recent five-yearly review of the benchmark. Co-chief investment officer Brad Dunstan also flags underweight commodity exposure as an area to address and explains why the fund remains sceptical of illiquidity premia despite seeing a growing case for private markets.

Sort content by

Global pension funds lift transparency, but cost reporting still lags

Global asset owners have made significant advancements in the transparency of disclosures with the industry, showing unprecedented alignment with best practices in performance, responsible investing and governance disclosures. However, cost reporting continues to be a pain point.

Canada marks five-year reign as global transparency leader

Canada has been named the country with the most transparent pension funds for the fifth consecutive year, according to the 2025 Global Pension Transparency Benchmark, with each of the five Canadian funds assessed ranked in the top 15 funds globally.

NEST’s private markets strategic review includes manager scrutiny

NEST is conducting a strategic review of its private markets allocation to ensure the program – launched in 2020 – is still capturing a liquidity premium for its young member base. Its private market head explains the key seams including no performance fees and evergreen structures to monitor deployment.

UK corporate DB consolidation: TPT throws its hat in the ring

Trustees and employers overseeing the UK’s 5,000 corporate pension plans, which hold an estimated £1.2 trillion ($1.6 trillion), have another option to help manage their defined benefit assets following TPT Retirement Solutions' proposal for a new superfund that will access managers through a fund-of-funds structure.

Minnesota overhauls governance as CIO gets more mandate power

Chief investment officer of the $150 billion Minnesota State Board of Investment will gain authority to hire and fire managers without board approval in a governance overhaul approved this week that will sharply fast-track decision-making. The change follows an 18-month asset allocation study which has resulted in some portfolio finetunes.

AUM at LPPI, Border to Coast and Central swell as UK mega pools take shape

UK pension funds LPPI, Border to Coast and LGPS Central are soaking up assets from Brunel and ACCESS as the country takes the next step towards creating mega pools in Local Government Pension Schemes, which collectively manage £392 billion ($522 billion).

Previous