Tag Archives: pensions

08.03.15
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Tsipras Fiddles While Greece Burns!

Unfortunately in this age of the 30 second soundbite we have a tendency to get bored with stories and events, often long before there has been resolution. This seems to be the case with Greece and it’s inclusion in the the Euro / Eurozone.

Most news reports these days are reporting that there is a “DEAL” already signed and sealed as it pertains to a third bail out for Greece when in fact, negotiations on a potential resolution only began last week.  Furthermore, key players, most notably the IMF, aren’t at the negotiating table, and they likely will stay away unless considerable debt relief is negotiated – not a very likely outcome.

While the negotiations begin, Greece’s economy is plunging further into depression. As reported earlier today, the seasonally adjusted purchasing managers’ index (PMI), fell to 30.2 in July from 46.9 in June. Any reading below 50 suggests contraction in the sector. Furthermore, new business decreased sharply in July, surpassing the previous record set in February 2012, while employment dropped for the fourth straight month in July, and at the steepest pace ever recorded during the 16-plus years of data collection. In addition, production dropped for the seventh straight month in July due to diminished output requirements as new orders plummeted and firms had difficulty in sourcing materials and semi-finished goods for use in the output process.

As if that isn’t bad enough, a quick recalculation of necessary funding for Greece raises the number from $92 billion to around $120 billion, which includes re-capitalizing the Greek banks. According to Mark Grant, the number for the banks is now about $43 billion, and it could be far worse as it appears that loans in default are growing at an alarming rate. Clearly, this will not sit well in Brussels and Berlin, and could bring about even more stringent demands than had been previously thought.

Given the plethora of depressing economic news, it isn’t surprising that the Greek stock market got destroyed today after reopening for the first time in five weeks since the beginning of the country’s capital controls and the announcement of the bailout referendum. The overall Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) index plunged by 22.87% as it opened. That leaves the market at a low not recorded since the middle of 2012.

According to an article in the LA Times, several key participants in the negotiations don’t hold out much hope for Greece’s economy even if a deal is finally completed.  Greece’s own prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, says he doesn’t really “believe in” the new bailout deal he’s hoping to secure for his country. Germany’s top finance official thinks a Greek exit from the euro currency would be better than another costly rescue package. As mentioned previously, even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) doubts a bailout will work without major debt relief from Athens’ creditors, few of which appear willing to offer any.

To hear these key players tell it, the rescue plan they’re currently concocting to save Greece from bankruptcy is either a bad idea or doomed to fail. Yet they’re pressing ahead anyway, despite the questions that their own public statements raise about their commitment to keeping Greece solvent, helping its economy grow and preserving its membership in the Eurozone.

08.03.15
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KCS August 2015 Fireside Chat – “Targeting Future Changes”

We are pleased to share with you the latest edition in the KCS Fireside Chat series.  This article touches on the burgeoning use of target date funds (TDFs).  However, all TDFs aren’t the same, and plan sponsors have an important responsibility to make sure that they stay on top of these funds from both an investment and fiduciary standpoint.  My colleague, Dave Murray, shares his expertise on these important investment vehicles.  Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if we can provide any assistance.  Enjoy!

Click to access KCSFCAUG15.pdf

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07.29.15
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KCS Second Quarter 2015 Update

We are pleased to share with you the KCS Second Quarter Update.  As we previously reported through this blog, 2015 has been a better year for pension funding than 2014 was despite the lower market returns, as interest rates have backed up creating a negative growth rate for plan liabilities.  We hope that you find our update insightful. Have a wonderful day.

Click to access KCS2Q15.pdf

06.22.15
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Pension America – Taking Control Of One’s Destiny

For pension plan participants defined benefit plans (DB) must remain the backbone of the US Retirement Industry

The true objective of a pension plan is to fund liabilities (monthly benefits) in a cost effective manner with reduced risk over time. Unfortunately, it has been nearly impossible to get a true understanding of a plan’s liabilities outside of the actuary’s report, which is received by sponsors and trustees only on an annual basis, at best, and usually many months delinquent.

Fortunately, a plan’s liabilities can now be monitored and reviewed on a monthly basis through a groundbreaking index developed by Ron Ryan and his firm, Ryan ALM – The Custom Liability Index (CLI). The CLI is similar to any index serving the asset side of the equation (S&P 500, Russell 1000, Barclays U.S. Aggregate, etc.), except that the CLI measures your plan’s specific liabilities and not some generic liability stream. This critically important tool calculates the present value, growth rate, term-structure, interest rate sensitivity of your plan’s liabilities, and other important statistics such as, average yield, duration, etc. With a more transparent view of liabilities, a plan can get a truer understanding of the funded ratio / funded status.

The use of the CLI enables plan sponsors, trustees, finance officials, and asset consultants to do a more effective job allocating assets and determining funding requirements (contributions). The return on asset assumption (ROA), which has been the primary objective for most DB plans, should become secondary to a plan’s specific liabilities. Importantly, as the plan’s funded status changes, the plan’s asset allocation should respond accordingly.

Importantly, the CLI is created using readily available information from the plan’s actuary (projected annual benefits and contributions), and it is updated as necessary to reflect plan design changes, COLAs, work force and salary changes, longevity forecasts, etc. In addition, the CLI is an incredibly flexible tool in which multiple views, based on various discount rates, can be created. These views may include the ROA, ASC 715, PPA, GASB 67/68, and market-based rates (risk-free), with and without the impact of contributions.

Why should a DB plan adopt the CLI? As mentioned above, DB plans only exist to fund a benefit that has been promised in the future. As a plan’s financial health changes the asset allocation should be adjusted accordingly (dynamic). Without having the greater transparency provided by the CLI, it is impossible to know when to begin de-risking the plan. You’ve witnessed through the last 15 years the onerous impact of market volatility on the funded status of DB plans and contribution costs. Ryan ALM and KCS can help you reduce the likelihood of a repeat, and very painful, performance.

05.20.15
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Double DB® – Answers To Your Questions

Earlier this week we shared with you the virtues of Double DB® and encouraged you to reach out with any questions.  I am very pleased with the response that we’ve gotten.

As a reminder, a group of us have confronted two important pension issues: pension cost volatility and resultant perilous pension indebtedness due to prior underfunding (see Illinois, NJ, and a host of other plans).

We have developed an over-arching, patent pending answer to all of it – Double DB®, which;
(1) Provides pensions, not “employee accessible” cash.
(2) Is “percentage of payroll” financed.
(3) Easily “manages” debt from past underfunding.

Here are some of your questions.

Q: How do you manage debt from past underfunding of a traditional DB plan?

Have the plan actuary determine the percentage of payroll expected to finance the plan debt in 30 years based on the actuary’s estimate of the rate of growth in the underlying payroll and the estimate of the rate of growth of the debt. Plan to allocate this percentage of payroll to debt financing every year. If it turns out that more or less than 30 years is required, simply accept the longer or shorter term or adjust the allocated percentage of payroll along the way.

Q: How do you fund and manage Double DB®?

Have the actuary determine the percentage of payroll needed to finance future service benefits of the plan. Plan to pay this percentage of payroll in every future year. In the first year, plan to place one half into a trust fund identified as DB1 and the other half into a trust fund identified as DB2. In the second and each future year, place the then actuarial cost of half of the future service benefit cost into DB1 and the remainder into DB2. Accordingly, one half of the future costs of the plan will always be financed on an actuarially sound basis within DB1, while DB2 will have assets reflecting the extent that experience is more favorable or less favorable than expected at the outset.

Q: What benefit can the employee expect to receive?

In each year of retirement a pensioner will receive one half the scheduled plan benefit from DB1 and an experience modified variation of the scheduled plan benefit from DB2. If an entering plan participant would prefer to have a level benefit rather than the two-part benefit as described, he/she may elect an option to receive, say, 90% of DB1 benefits from DB2 and thereby receiving 95% of the benefit value to which he/she is entitled in retirement. Accordingly, the DB2 component of the plan will be provided a 10% “fee” for taking the risk of paying a larger benefit than the benefit to which the pensioner was entitled over the years of retirement. The 90% component can be more than 90% if the actuary for the plan is satisfied that a higher percentage is justified based on his/her appraisal of the risk.

We thank you for your continued interest.  Please don’t hesitate to bring additional questions to our attention.

06.17.14
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Unintended Consequences

Unintended Consequences

Recently I had the opportunity to speak at the Financial Research Associates’ conference in NYC on non-traditional fixed income. I had the pleasure of participating on a panel with an industry icon – Ron Ryan, Ryan ALM  He and I presented on the topic “Taking a Close Look at the Liability Beta Portfolio”.  However, before presenting our views on the proper use of fixed income in a defined benefit plan, especially in a low interest rate environment, Ron and I addressed the unintended consequences from accounting rules, both GASB and FASB, that have lead to an under-reporting of plan liabilities and an overstatement of plans assets.  Given both, it is obvious that funded ratios are overstated, too.

The IASB (International Accounting Standards Board) has moved to a mark to market accounting of both pension liabilities and assets.  It isn’t too far fetched to believe that the US will adopt these same standards in the near future.  Unfortunately, since GASB uses the ROA to value plan liabilities, it becomes clear as to why the pension community continues to focus on the asset side of the equation instead of the liability side, which should be driving asset allocation and investment structure.

Attached for your review is our presentation.  We encourage you to reach out to us if you have any questions or challenges.

 

 

06.10.14
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Where are the Economies of Scale?

Since its founding in August 2011, KCS has tried to highlight some of the issues facing the US retirement industry in the hopes that perhaps best practices could be identified and DB plans, as a result, SAVED.  I recently came across the “Status Report on Local Government Pension Plans” for Pennsylvania.  The report was released in December 2012, and it used information through calendar year 2011.

The following paragraph jumped out at me:

“Pennsylvania’s local government pension plans comprise more than 25 percent of the public employee
pension plans in the United States. There are now more than 3,200 local government pension plans in
Pennsylvania, and the number is continuing to grow. Seventy percent of the local government pension plans
are self-insured, defined benefit plans, and 30 percent are money purchase or other type plans. The pension
plans range in size from one to more than 18,000 active members, but more than 98 percent of the pension
plans can be characterized as small (less than 100 members). While 68 percent of the local government
pension plans have ten or fewer members, 32 percent have three or fewer active members.”

I find it hard to believe that anyone thinks that having more than 3,200 local government plans in PA is a good idea, especially when one considers that 98% of the plans have fewer than 100 employees. The local governments and their participants would be much better off pooling their resources into larger, more professionally managed DB plans that afford everyone the benefit or economies of scale. 

I suspect that there exist other states in the Union with a similar governance structure, but if we are to preserve the defined benefit plan as the retirement vehicle of choice, we need to reduce the cost of managing these plans.  Allowing thousands of defined benefit plans with fewer than 100 participants to exist is not sound governance.

06.02.14
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Could This Hybrid Plan Revolutionize the Pension Industry?

As we’ve seen recently in NJ with Governor Christie’s decision to withhold the State’s annual required contribution, public and private pension funds are under extreme funding pressure.  As a result, traditional DB plans continue to be terminated / frozen in rapid fashion, with new employees being migrated to defined contribution structures. Unfortunately, the complete shift in risk from the sponsor to the employee is proving to be a disaster, with most employees incapable of funding and managing their own retirement (median account balance for a DC participant is slightly more than $13,000).

Importantly, KCS is pleased to announce that we’ve entered into an alliance with Ed Friend, a long-tenured and highly successful actuary, Ryan ALM and Longevity Financial Consultants to bring to the marketplace a patent pending hybrid DB structure that provides the plan sponsor with a fixed cost feature. The product is called Double DB, and as a hybrid, combines elements of both DB and DC. We think that this new design could revolutionize the pension industry by making the use of defined benefit plans more economical for the sponsoring organization.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you’d like to receive more information on Double DB. We think that both employers and employees are better served utilizing the Double DB design.

04.24.14
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When everyone expects one thing, you may want to prepare for a different outcome

On January 9th, and again on April 4th, we at KCS addressed the issue that US interest rates wouldn’t necessarily rise, and in fact, with everyone in the world seemingly believing that interest rates had only one way to move – UP – we thought that there was a good chance that rates might fall.  In fact, the interest rate on the 10 year US Treasury has fallen by more than 30 bps so far this year.  That is a fairly meaningful move.  With many plan sponsors and asset consultants trimming, eliminating, and restructuring their US fixed income exposure, a plan’s asset allocation is now more disconnected from the liabilities than before.  This disconnect exacerbates the volatility in funded ratios and contribution costs. 

Don’t believe us, then how about the following.  Here is a brief research piece that I found on Cullen Roche’s website today.

“Jim Bianco, of Bianco Research, points out in a market comment Tuesday that a survey of 67 economists this month shows every single one of them expects the 10-year Treasury  yield to rise in the next six months.

The survey, which is done each month by Bloomberg, has been notably bearish for some time now, with nearly everyone expecting rising rates. In March, 97% expected rising rates. In February, 95% expected yields to climb. And in January, 97% held that expectation. Since the beginning of 2009, there have only been a handful of instances where less than 50% expected rates to rise.”

Read more at http://pragcap.com/the-metamorphosis-of-the-bond-bears#6KE3VCCCBLDYV554.99

The US Retirement industry cannot afford to get the direction of rates wrong.  A continuation in the decline of rates will only further inflate the underfunding of US pension liabilities, and continue to put pressure on both private and public DB plan sponsors to do something else, such as close or freeze the DB plan and move more participants into DC.  At KCS, we’ve spoken and written about alternative strategies that go along way to improving funded ratios and stabilize contribution costs.  We are waiting to hear form you.

The beneficiaries of our collective effort cannot afford to have us screw up any more. DC plans are not the answer, but are quickly becoming the only game in town.

 

“Jim Bianco, of Bianco Research, points out in a market comment Tuesday that a survey of 67 economists this month shows every single one of them expects the 10-year Treasury  yield to rise in the next six months.

The survey, which is done each month by Bloomberg, has been notably bearish for some time now, with nearly everyone expecting rising rates. In March, 97% expected rising rates. In February, 95% expected yields to climb. And in January, 97% held that expectation. Since the beginning of 2009, there have only been a handful of instances where less than 50% expected rates to rise.”

Read more at http://pragcap.com/the-metamorphosis-of-the-bond-bears#6KE3VCCCBLDYV554.99

“Jim Bianco, of Bianco Research, points out in a market comment Tuesday that a survey of 67 economists this month shows every single one of them expects the 10-year Treasury  yield to rise in the next six months.

The survey, which is done each month by Bloomberg, has been notably bearish for some time now, with nearly everyone expecting rising rates. In March, 97% expected rising rates. In February, 95% expected yields to climb. And in January, 97% held that expectation. Since the beginning of 2009, there have only been a handful of instances where less than 50% expected rates to rise.”

Read more at http://pragcap.com/the-metamorphosis-of-the-bond-bears#6KE3VCCCBLDYV554.99

04.16.14
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U.S. Treasury STRIPS – The Naked Truth

At KCS, we have been sharing ideas with plan sponsors to reconfigure their existing fixed income exposure into an enhanced asset allocation framework that might just stabilize a plan’s funded status and contribution costs.  The motivation has been driven by the fear of rising interest rates.  Unfortunately, this fear has provided the impetus for many of our friends in the industry to shed exposure to domestic fixed income programs.  Stop!

Despite the near unanimous expectation that rates have to rise from these “historically low levels”, the fact is that interest rates have actually fallen rather significantly year to date.  In fact, the U.S. 10-year Treasury Bond has seen its yield fall by 37 bps (as of 4/15).  The KCS crystal ball is no clearer than that of any other market participant, so why “guess” where rates are going.

We think it would be advantageous for plan sponsors to reconfigure their existing fixed income exposure to include a separate, lower risk portfolio that matches near term benefit payments for the next 5-7 years depending on the current funded ratio of the plan and projected future contributions. This strategy will improve the plan’s liquidity, while extending the investing horizon for less liquid assets that we would use to support their active portfolio.

We have recommended that the lower risk portfolio be invested in U.S. Treasury STRIPS to match benefit payments.  However, that instrument’s name raises more questions than answers, and has often turned potential users off before the conversation really heats up.  We are here today to say that STRIPS, although misunderstood, are actually low risk, useful fixed income securities.

STRIPS is an acronym for “separate trading of registered interest and principal securities”. Treasury STRIPS are fixed-income securities, sold at a significant discount to face value and offer no interest payments because they mature at par, which is why they are so good at matching projected cash flows. Backed by the U.S. government, STRIPS, which were first introduced in 1985, offer minimal risk and some tax benefits in certain states, replacing TIGRs and CATS (…retired to the zoo?!) as the dominant zero-coupon U.S. security.

If you are concerned about your plan’s funded status, the direction of interest rates and / or the current composition of your fixed income assets, call us to discuss a new path forward. We are here and ready to help you!