LDI.Managers Cash in on Waning Corporate Pension Business

公司的pension plansmay be dying a slow death, but that hasn’t stopped asset managers from building thriving businesses out of them. Consider Legal & General Investment Management America. In 2009 the firm, a Chicago-based subsidiary of the asset management arm of  U.K. insurer Legal & General, started offering liability-driven investment strategies, which help corporations reduce the risks of their defined benefit plans.  The business has grown to $37.7 billion in assets as of the end of 2013, including $17 billion for 66 outside clients.  The company has expanded to 70 staff from 14; to cap its success it even moved to Chicago’s tony Loop.  That’s not a bad result, considering that corporate pensions are the BlackBerry of the retirement savings world.

Mike Craston, CEO of the American outfit since 2011, says the firm set out to get a toehold in the hypercompetitive U.S. asset management business by drawing on the expertise of its British parent in LDI andfixed income.Some $2 trillion in U.S. corporate pension plan assets make for a fertile hunting ground, even if it’s shrinking. “It’s rare that we find a corporate fund sponsor that isn’t doing something to derisk its pension,” says Craston, who previously led the global institutional business for London-based Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM). Craston is taking steps to launch an index fund business consisting mostly of equity offerings, having hired Chad Rakvin, former head of the global equity index group at Chicago’s Northern  Trust Global Investments, to run the unit. The firm also hired Shaun Murphy, who had been Northern  Trust’s director of international equity index, as director of index funds.

LGIM为Asoteric LDI业务中的美国脱枪提供了成功的模板。 The firm, one of the biggest equity index fund and bond managers, landed its first LDI mandate in 2001, after British regulations pushed private corporations to better manage their pension plans. LGIM has since won 250 mandates.

美国公司开始考虑与2006年养恤金保护法案的相似风险减少举措，这要求他们披露养老金资金短缺。根据LDI策略，公司使用长期债券和有时衍生物匹配资产负债。法律和一般投资管理美国拥有认真的竞争：布莱克罗克，太平洋投资管理公司，圣路易斯的审慎金融和专家NISA投资顾问是一些基于美国的美国公司。

去年标志着转折点corporate pension plans随着股票的牛市和更高的利率让他们更接近完全资助，更能够满足受益者的承诺。LDI对于更好资助的计划可能更具吸引力：从Gunning获得增长，公司可以专注于减少风险。在2013年通过咨询塔尔·沃特森对养老金风险管理未来的调查中，180名受访者的四分之三表示，他们更多地关心他们所定义的福利计划的风险，而不是在接下来的两到三到三个中获得更高的投资管理人员的回报年。百分之七十一项实施了LDI计划，或者至少认真考虑到明年的表现。

But there are hazards to sponsors and to asset managers that cater to corporate plans.  With interest rates so low, pension plans are running the risk of  buying bonds at inflated prices. As a result, many have sat on the sidelines.  Those that waited have been punished as rates have kept moving lower, says  Thomas Meyers, head of distribution for LGIM’s American subsidiary: “If companies are hoping to close the funding gap or waiting until rates are higher before making the leap, then they can instead take a couple of bites of the apple at a time.” Many corporate plans have adopted policy statements that map out how they’ll boost their hedged portfolios in line with how their funded status improves, Meyers adds.

There’s money to be made in LDI and in helping companies mitigate the risks of offering pensions to employees who may live well into their 90s. But that may not last. In fact, many corporations must implement an LDI plan so they can eventually jettison their pension risk. General Motors Co. and  Verizon Communications off-loaded a big chunk of their pension liabilities by purchasing group annuity contracts from Prudential in 2013. Ford Motor Co. took a different route by offering lump-sum payments to about 90,000 employees. For Legal & General Investment Management America’s parent, though, there’s a silver lining: As an insurer, it can get a piece of the group annuity action. • •

更多地获得更多pensions.