CALSTR.CIO Chris Ailman Makes Retirement Security His Mission

As CIO of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System,Christopher Ailmannever forgets that 896,000 people depend on his pension fund for their future. “Teachers in California are not in Social Security, so we’re their safety net. We are their only certain income,” Ailman tells亚博赞助欧冠. “It’s absolutely critical for women to have some kind of retirement plan.”

3月初58岁Ailman’s fervent belief in the value of defined benefit pensions brought him from Sacramento to Washington for the annual conference sponsored by the National Institute on Retirement Security. Called Retirement Realities, this year’s installment highlighted an increasingly dire savings situation for participants in U.S. public sector pension funds — particularly women, who, as lower-wage workers, typically put less money away. AtCALSTR., the nation’s second-largest public plan, 72 percent of members are female.

Ailman — whose tall, imposing presence belies a friendly demeanor — has 30 years’ experience in the CIO role at U.S. public pension funds. He joined CalSTRS in 2000 after working at the Washington State Investment Board, the Sacramento County Employees’ Retirement System and the County of Sacramento. Before taking the stage with Wisconsin State Investment Board CIO David Villa and Stephen Cummings, CEO of Aon Hewitt Investment Consulting, to discuss the benefits of a traditional pension for public sector workers, he stopped to chat about CalSTRS’ prospects.

Like many of its peers, the biggest U.S. teachers’ pension fund is severely underfunded, having lost 25 percent of its value after the global financial crisis. Given a $73.7 billion funding gap, its $180 billion in assets represents only 69 percent of what is needed to deliver promised benefits. But in 2014, Governor Edmund (Jerry) Brown Jr. signed Assembly Bill 1469, which boosts member, employer and state contributions to CalSTRS, part of a plan to fully fund it within 32 years.

Ailman, who heads a 120-strong investment team, also has an impressive track record working in his favor: As of June 30, 2015, CalSTRS had posted ten- and five-year returns of 7.02 percent and 12.14 percent, respectively. Last June, 57.4 percent of the fund’s assets were in global equities, with two thirds of that total in U.S. stocks. Fixed income comprised 15.7 percent of the portfolio;房地产和私募股权占12.7％和10.1％.

For Ailman, what makes a defined benefit plan successful is pooling liabilities while pooling and professionally managing assets. CalSTRS is constantly looking to allocate to private equity and other illiquid assets for the long term, Ailman says: “If you only invest in a 90-day investment cycle, like mutual funds or most public entities, you’re going to be defeated, especially when you have a 30-year horizon.”

投资成本可能是回报最重要的因素，大养老基金可以协商最低费用，特别是他们在内部管理资金的地方。“即使在股权和固定收益等液体市场中，我们也可以根据外部管理的成本低得多的内部管理 - 甚至比Vanguard，行业标准便宜，”Ailman，敏锐的游泳者和水手解释说。“我们在我们方面有一些谈判能力，因为我们已经含有大小。”

美国公共养老金治理有所改善的余地，这是一个追溯到20世纪70年代的蓝图。“这不是任何人会选择遵循的商业模式，但我们尽可能做到最好，”Ailman表示，在政府实体内部经营一名投资经理，指出加拿大养老金计划，主权财富基金和教育禀赋的不同结构。

What would he do with CalSTRS if he had his druthers? “I’d build it from scratch,” Ailman says, along the lines of an insurer. Canadian public pensions have an advantage because they build their own teams to make direct investments in expensive asset classes such as private equity, real estate and infrastructure, he notes: “We’ve seen fee savings there can be enormous.”