Friday, May 22, 2009

Another Children’s Crusade?

In P&I there is an extensive discussion of the pros and cons of a core/satellite asset structure vs. a portable alpha structure for pension fund assets. My questions are:
  • Portable alpha overlaid on what benchmark?
  • How do you define core?

PBGC in trouble
In the meantime, I see in the news that the former head of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation has refused to testify before the Senate and asserted his Fifth Amendment rights. He was to be questioned about his relationships with Wall Street firms and their relationships with PBGC.

By the way, PBGC's deficit has tripled to $33.5 billion.

What a mess.


A Children's Crusade?
As I indicated before, until pension funds have clearly benchmarked their liability structure and the factor sensitivities of that benchmark, the task of managing assets is may be as fruitful as the Children’s Crusade.

If you are not sure of where you are going, how will you know if you get there?

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