Study accounts for TIPS, alternatives

PERS logoThe effects of adding TIPS and alternatives to the existing asset mix are being explored in an asset liability analysis conducted for the $53 billion Oregon Public Employees Retirement System by Strategic Investment Solutions.

A presentation from SIS, which looked at five new asset allocation scenarios adding a 5 per cent alternatives allocation, and between a 0.1 per cent and 11.4 per cent allocation to TIPS, showed all except the most conservative mix achieved the actuarial return without accounting for alpha.

Further, reducing the total equities allocation by nearly 10 per cent, achieved through halving public equities and slightly increasing private equities, together with a 5 per cent and 4 per cent allocation to alternatives and TIPS, would yield the same expected return.

A risk/reward analysis was used to point toward an appropriate level of risk/return with the consultant finding generally the Sharpe ratio, or risk/return efficiency was higher for lower return mixes.

With liquidity analysis, and scenario analysis in inflation, deflation, recession and low-return environments, the conclusion was that the ultimate net cost does not suggest taking less risk.

A July presentation to the investment committee will include defining the ALM analyses, refining a potential asset allocation policy (including new asset classes such as the opportunity portfolio, alternatives and TIPS) and adopting a new asset allocation policy.

Sponsored Content

Asset allocation

Asset class target Mix4-1 Mix4-2 Mix4-3 Mix4-4 Mix4-5 current mix
Public equity 46% 19.8% 21.9% 24.2% 31.4% 39.2% 42.9%
Private equity 16% 18.8% 20.7% 22.9% 24.0% 25.0% 19.8%
Fixed income 27% 36.9% 36.9% 31.5% 28.5% 20.7% 25.7%
Real estate 11% 8.2% 10.1% 12.1% 11.0% 10.0% 9.4%
TIPS 0% 11.4% 5.5% 4.3% 0.1% 0.1% 0%
Alts Port 0% 5.0% 4.8% 5.0% 5.0% 5.0% 2.2%
Equity 73% 51.7% 57.6% 64.2% 71.4% 79.2% 74.3%
Expected return 8.61% 7.75% 8.08% 8.42% 8.76% 9.09% 8.61%
Std deviation 12.8% 10% 10.9% 11.9% 12.9% 14% 12.8%
Sharpe ratio 0.44 0.47 0.47 0.46 0.45 0.44 0.44

source: Strategic Investment Solutions

Leave a Comment

Sort content by

Blinder: a power of paradox at Princeton

Pension funds or any investor holding a slug of long-term fixed income needs to factor in some capital losses soon, says Princeton academic and former vice president of the Federal Reserve, Alan Blinder. “The timing is difficult to predict, but three or 15 months, it doesn’t matter. It is predictable,” he says. “The unpredictable part

UniSuper defies accepted thinking

Mention any asset class to John Pearce, chief investment officer of Australian superannuation fund UniSuper, and he will doggedly set out the good and bad thinking around it. A common source of his ire is the sight of investors herding around a belief based on a lack of rigorous thinking. Good practice for him involves

OTPP deals with underfunding

Even the most successful and well run pension plans are facing underfunding challenges. The $129-billion Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is the latest to investigate solutions to solve the mismatch between the pension promise and the funds required to meet that, says Jim Leech, chief executive of the organisation . OTPP has appointed a taskforce – chaired

Fewer, bigger funds for UK?

Australia, the US, Canada and Denmark have all done it. Kazakhstan and even Oman are talking about it. Increasingly, public sector pension funds are merging or pooling their assets into fewer bigger schemes. It’s no surprise the debate is gathering momentum in the United Kingdom, ripe for consolidation with a Local Government Pension Fund Scheme

Scenario analysis: applicable to anything?

Attempts to apply a formula to asset allocation based on an asset’s historical volatility and relationship with other assets tend to fail when presented with black-swan events. Equities tend to rise along with commodities except when presented with political events such as the price hikes in oil in 1973 that sent equities into free fall.

Kurtzer on Holy Land of opportunity

The Middle East is in a state of dynamic flux, with positive change manifesting itself in the countries going through an economic and financial revolution as much as a political one. Institutional investors from all parts of the world have a role to play in that revolution, according to former US ambassador to Egypt and

Previous