Does anyone else get the feeling that regulators and supervisors of financial institutions such as insurers, banks and pension funds merely follow the fashion?
Continue readingasset liability modelling
What’s in a name?
Shakespeare wrote some pithy lines in the 17th century about names. You’ll find those lines in Romeo and Juliet. In essence he contended that calling a rose something else would not make it smell any less sweet.
Continue readingRight risking an investment portfolio
Generally, reduced exposure to equities, in favour of bonds, will reduce the expected long-term return of an investment portfolio. However, the variation of short-term returns will also be reduced. This is a means of risk control, but an overall reduction in investment return, will result in higher cash contributions from the employer sponsor of a defined benefit (DB) pension plan. Is the trade-off worthwhile? How is the trade-off quantified?
Continue reading