Endgame portfolios and the role of credit
Last week I gave a couple of talks at the Pensions, Risk and Investment Conference, organised by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. One of them was based on a recent paper I wrote* on pension scheme funding. The talk seemed to strike a chord with many...
The lifetime ISA – what’s it worth?
A lot of attention in the recent UK budget has been focussed on the launch of "lifetime ISAs" (or "LISAs" - yes, that's the reason for the picture...). On the face of it, these seem very tax-efficient. For every £4,000 invested, the Government...
The deflation myth
Although inflation seems to be edging up, there are still fears the UK will slip into deflation. This is important because deflation can be bad for the economy. However, one of the key reasons given for this assertion is that "if prices are falling, then...
3 reasons why we’re living longer than ever – and 3 more why immortality is (probably) out of reach
Since the start of the twentieth century, we've seen huge improvements in life expectancy. As the chart below for England and Wales shows, a boy born in 1900 might have expected to live for 43.3 years, whilst a girl could expect to have 47.3 years. By...
How to defuse a demographic time bomb
The United Kingdom is an ageing country. This doesn't just mean that people are living longer, which they are; it also means that the birth rate has dropped significantly in recent decades. These two factors are important when considering issues like state pensions....
The price of oil and pension schemes
A while ago I co-wrote a paper that looked at the interaction between a pension scheme's investment strategy and the financial strength of its sponsor. As an example, we looked at a pension scheme whose sponsor was an oil company. We argued...