Defined Benefits

A recent Financial Times opinion piece laid out how illiquidity makes private equity hazardous for investors. The Bank of England’s Nathanaël Benjamin warns private equity illiquidity is a systemic risk to the financial system.

With the S&P 500 index up almost 18 percent since the beginning of this year, now may be a good time to check how well your retired or near retired clients’ household assets match up with their expected spending liabilities.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s trading unit powered a surge in earnings in the second quarter.

The clubby world of private credit seems to be running out of space for the little guy.

As Pete Stavros addressed the private equity industry’s yearly shindig in Berlin last month, the KKR & Co. executive’s words were slightly less headline grabbing than those of Apollo Global Management’s co-president Scott Kleinman. But they were just as troubling.

Markets today pose a new existential question: Can there be a bubble in something if it has no price?

Those wishing to explore the gap between the nation’s apparent macroeconomic success and its microeconomic malaise would do well to consult Ruchir Sharma’s What Went Wrong with Capitalism.

A long era of easy profits in private equity is gone, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is digging in deeper for the harder work ahead.

Nadeem Meghji was on honeymoon in late 2022 when the biggest storm to have rocked Blackstone Inc.’s property business hit its peak.

When JPMorgan Chase & Co. arranged a series of trades to shift the risk of losses from $20 billion of its loans, some of those dangers wound up at a familiar place: rival banks.

As private equity investment in health care has surged to almost $1 trillion over the past decade — funding new technologies, clinical trials and more — a lack of transparency has made it hard to assess whether the industry is also putting patients at risk.

Institutional investors have grown tired of paying fees to hedge funds for what they see as “skill-less returns.”

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has put together $21 billion for private credit wagers, its biggest war chest yet for Wall Street’s buzziest asset class.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is on the hunt to buy a private credit firm to augment its $3.6 trillion asset management arm, as the biggest US bank makes more inroads into Wall Street’s buzziest sector.

The goal that was so theoretical in my 20’s had become a reality in my 60’s. I had become financially independent by investing in real estate.

Idanna Appio spent 15 years at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York analysing the history of sovereign debt crises. Now, as a fund manager at the $138 billion First Eagle Investments, she’s reached a conclusion: US Treasury bonds are too risky to hold.

Shadow banking is back. A constellation of less-regulated intermediaries — from insurers to private investment funds — is increasingly taking on the traditional business of banks, making trillions of dollars in risky loans and occupying a central role in the economy.

High fees are the main reason the Bridgewater fund and the other hedge funds using a risk-parity strategy performed so badly. Their underperformance relative to the 60/40 index portfolio amounted to about three percent annually. Of that three percent about two percent went to fees and other compensation.

When it comes to Bitcoin ETFs, it’s not just the retail trading crowd that’s taking the plunge. It’s now clear that hedge funds, pension funds and banks have also sprinkled capital into the exchange-traded funds after their blockbuster debut that was more than a decade in the making.

The rise of electronic trading and growing popularity of portfolio trading has had an unintended consequence for the US corporate bond market: making private credit even more attractive.

As the market for initial public offerings bounces back after two lifeless years, investors who’ve been impatiently waiting for their payoff are finally getting some returns.

Investors’ hopes for rate cuts this year have faded. The past quarter’s economic data showed that the inflation battle is not over; whether the Fed eases now depends on the data, a point Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve have repeated ad nauseam.

They subdued stocks, claimed a chunk of foreign exchange and muscled into the commodity market. Now high-tech trading firms like Citadel Securities LLC and Jane Street are pushing deeper than ever into fixed income.

The sorry state of Britain's equity markets has been well-documented. Across all UK indexes there have been just three initial public offerings so far this year after over 100 de-listings in 2023. The noise that this is only the beginning is getting louder.

It was an irresistible pitch. Give us your money, executives at Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates and other hedge funds said, and we’ll funnel it into a money-minting, sure-thing strategy for the long haul.

Rising interest rates and the fear of giving back stock market gains are pushing pension fund managers to move capital from stocks to bonds.

I have indicted the securities industry for spreading “a web of deceptions that have become conventional wisdom.” But a small part of the industry does provide products and services that are beneficial and necessary. That is the subject of this article.

Ongoing planning in retirement involves periodically assessing whether spending may be increased or must be decreased to remain on track.

As we mark the tenth anniversary of the Statement on Standards in Personal Financial Planning Services, it's clear that this milestone was more than a mere regulatory update — it was a foundational moment for the financial planning profession.

Success in the insurance channel requires an understanding of the distinctive investment needs and regulatory considerations it faces.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said artificial intelligence may be the biggest issue his bank is grappling with, likened its potential impact to that of the steam engine and said the technology could “augment virtually every job.”

As a retirement economist — not to be confused with a retired economist, which are rare — I often find myself talking to Wall Street types who happen to be in charge of a lot of other people’s money.

Pension funds around the world are significantly underinvested in infrastructure and will help drive growth as they tip more capital into assets that will be part of the global energy transition, according to a report by IFM Investors.

It’s budget season in Washington, which means the politicians are delivering their annual warnings about the looming Social Security crisis.

Is there a point where support crosses a line and becomes a form of dependency for adult children while putting the financial security of the parent at risk?

JPMorgan Chase & Co. will continue hiring in China for its asset management business as it targets growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

America’s public pension funds have gotten themselves into a bind. They’re responsible for paying trillions of dollars in future retirement benefits to teachers, firefighters, police, and other state and local employees, but their assets fall far short of what’s needed to fulfill those promises.

This lessening of government involvement, and the change in the corporate culture, together with a new or reinterpreted economic philosophy all combined to produce an unraveling of the United States that had for some time been incredibly materially productive for the benefit of all.

To Jamie Dimon, it's no better than a “pet rock.” To the late Charlie Munger, longtime lieutenant to Warren Buffett, it's “massively stupid.” And to US Senator Elizabeth Warren, it's a great tool if you’re a terrorist, drug dealer or fraudster.

Colm Kelleher whipped up a storm at the end of last year when the UBS Group AG chairman warned of a dangerous bubble in private credit.

In the first installment of this series, I pledged to unveil a retirement strategy with such merit that it warrants widespread adoption by the investment advisor community. Let's delve into the compelling case for this approach.

What caused the system’s funded status to deteriorate from 100% to 79.3% over the past 40 years? And more importantly, what actions will Congress take to reform the system?

Cash may still be king for the moment, but after more than $1 trillion flowed into money-market funds last year as short-term rates rose, investors are trying to figure out where it goes next.

Here’s how your clients’ birthdays trigger marketing moments that matter.