Callan Survey Finds Nearly 50% of Respondents Incorporate ESG, Highest Level Ever

Tom Shingler provides key takeaways from the Callan 2021 ESG Survey.

After a Remarkable 2021, a Closer Look at Public DB Fiscal Year Returns Over Time

One needs to go back to 1985 to find a single year with a return higher than what the median public plan achieved during 2021.

Understanding Return Forecasts for Public DB Plans

John Pirone explains how to distinguish between actuarial discount rates and consultant return expectations.

GameStopped—Or Just Getting Started?

A key issue highlighted by GameStop is the unintended consequences of zero-cost money and commission-free trading enabled by today’s highly stimulative monetary and fiscal policies.

Quarterly Results for Institutional Investors Reflect the Initial Impact of the Pandemic

Four of the primary types of institutional investors (public and corporate defined benefit (DB) plans; nonprofits; and Taft-Hartley plans) experienced sharp declines in the first quarter and smaller drops for the 12 months ending March 31. A quarterly rebalanced 60% S&P 500/40% Bloomberg Barclays Aggregate portfolio declined 10.9% during the quarter and 0.4% over the […]

Equity Risk Looms Large for Fund Sponsors

The median fund sponsor in Callan’s database gained 2.7% in the third quarter. Taft-Hartley plans (+3.0%) were the best-performing sponsor by type, as they were the previous quarter; corporate plans (+2.3%) showed the lowest increase.

Managing Risk While Hunting for Returns

Low interest rates and low return expectations continued to drive strategic allocation discussions for fund sponsors. Many felt compelled to take on market risk to reach return targets. Sponsors are now examining if there is anything they can do to tamp down the risk within their large growth allocation short of actually reducing it. For […]