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

How CPP is evolving risk management for a faster, more interconnected world

In an environment where multiple risks are emerging and their effects are compounding on the portfolio, CPP Investments' chief risk officer Priti Singh says the $572 billion fund is rethinking risk management from the ground up, shifting from reaction to preparation and embedding risk thinking earlier in investment decisions. She speaks to Amanda White about the fund's risk approach.

Pension funds confront the question of who owns AI

As the use of AI within asset owners evolves, organisations are grappling with the governance question of where the strategy and accountability sit. Darcy Song looks at the treatment of AI organisationally within a number of high-profile funds, including OTPP, AustralianSuper, CPP and Norges Bank.

Why Australia’s super funds continue to engage with Washington

Australia’s fast-growing superannuation funds are increasingly allocating capital into US infrastructure, but success will rely on navigating an unpredictable federal policy environment and a patchwork of skeptical state governments.

URS bets on nuclear to power AI and lower emissions

Next-generation nuclear energy, and the money pouring into it, will truly change the world, according to CIO of Utah Retirement System John Skjervem. It’s a lonely position as the CIO of a public pension fund but one Utah is embracing as it builds out early-stage investments in nuclear energy as part of its alternative energy portfolio. He speaks to Sarah Rundell in an exclusive interview about how investing in transformational energy technologies can be part of prudent investment management.

Managing volatility and inflation: Constant rebalancing shores up UK’s lifeboat fund

A keen focus on rebalancing, and best in class systems, allows the UK’s £31.2 billion Pension Protection Fund to effectively implement a dynamic hedging strategy for one of the UK's biggest LDI portfolios. Sarah Rundell reports.

Velliv reset: More Danish funds lean into low cost DC model

In Denmark’s fiercely competitive commercial pension industry, Velliv was quick to take action with a root-and-branch overhaul of its pension provision when it experienced a drop in returns in the first half of 2024. It sacked its active equity managers, scaling up internal active strategies and low-cost, index-based investments instead, and stopped allocating to its $4.3 billion alternatives allocation. Thor Schultz Christensen, deputy chief investment officer at Velliv, unpacks the change.

Previous