Why Governmental 457 Plans Like Stable Value
By Randy Myers Stable value funds have long been popular with so-called “457” plans–supplemental retirement savings plans that function much like 401(k) plans but are marketed mostly to government employees. Still, there are steps the stable value industry could take to preserve its favored position in that marketplace, says Maryland Assistant Attorney General John Barry, […]
Stable Value Industry Urged to Articulate Risk Management Processes
By Randy Myers Stable value investment managers and wrap issuers devote huge chunks of their time to managing risk. Now it’s time to start documenting those efforts, says Susan Mangiero, managing director of Fiduciary Leadership LLC, an independent research and training company serving institutional investors. Regulatory and legal developments have much to do with the […]
How Asset Allocation Models Handle Stable Value Funds
By Randy Myers Given their hybrid nature–they generate returns comparable to those available from intermediate-term bond funds, but with low volatility similar to money market funds–stable value funds have never been particularly easy to account for in asset allocation models. But leading financial services firms appear to have found solutions that make them comfortable. Mutual […]
Public and Private Pension Plans Face Funding Gap
By Randy Myers Each year, researchers at investment consulting firm Wilshire Associates study the health of the nation’s largest public and private pension plans. Lately, their findings have been discouraging. “It’s not great,” Wilshire managing director James Neill told participants at the 2010 SVIA Fall Forum. “At the end of the last decade, things were […]
Hunt Cautions Against Premature Spending Cuts—Or Counting Out President Obama
By Randy Myers Congressional Republicans won big in the recent midterm election, often running on an anti-spending platform. But cutting federal spending too soon could be a mistake, warns Al Hunt, Washington managing editor for Bloomberg News. It also could be a mistake, he says, to assume that the GOP’s big showing in 2010 will […]
Stable Times Volume 15 Issue 2
The biannual publication of the Stable Value Investment Association that covers both industry concerns and association activities.
Stable Times Volume 15 Issue 1
The biannual publication of the Stable Value Investment Association that covers both industry concerns and association activities.
JPMorgan Chase Teams with Barclays to Develop Stable Value Index
By Randy Myers While stable value funds emerged from the recent credit crisis relatively unscathed—none lost money and returns held well above those on money market funds—the crisis did have some fallout. Specifically, the market value of many stable value portfolios temporarily fell below book value during the crisis, prompting many wrap issuers to push […]
Investors Look to Stable Value
By Gina Mitchell, SVIA Defined contribution investors have taken all that the financial markets have thrown at them: an historic market upheaval and a prolonged recession in a low-interest rate environment with increased volatility. Unlike most investors, defined contribution investors have an investment that has withstood the market’s battering: stable value. And, according to SVIA’s […]