Defined Benefits

How do we give clients what they’re truly looking for — income certainty, simplicity, peace of mind —without triggering resistance that shuts the conversation down?

A 529 plan can play a strategic role in estate planning, especially for families looking to reduce taxes while saving for education. Contributions to a 529 plan may be excluded from your taxable estate, potentially lowering future estate tax liability.

If I told someone with even a little investing experience that I own an asset that pays like stocks but is stable like bonds, they would probably think I was a huckster or a fool. Yet many of the most sophisticated investors claim to own such a thing.

Back in 2016, Intercontinental Exchange Inc., the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, revealed that it was considering an offer for the London Stock Exchange Group Plc.

The federal government, financial markets and most Americans are all in a state of denial about interest rates.

Neuberger Berman has raised more than $4 billion for its latest general partner-led secondary fund, at a time when private equity firms are increasingly looking to monetize assets via continuation vehicles.

Most of us are facing longer working lives, but that also means we need to remain healthier for longer. While linking the pensionable threshold to improving longevity is fair, up to a point...

Most clients are relatively conservative when it comes to determining how much they can afford to spend in retirement. All things being equal, clients would generally rather die with too much money than too little.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is embarking on its most ambitious effort yet to offer an exit ramp for investors trapped in buyout funds.

Long-term interest rates have become much less predictable, and that means volatile prices for long bonds.

With mainstream investment products increasingly finding a second home on the blockchain, it’s a good time to ask what role central banks would play if everything they have learned while policing double-entry bookkeeping over the last 350 years becomes irrelevant.

Don’t allow your middle-aged clients depending on their 401(k) plan to fool themselves. Markets can’t rescue a failure to save until it hurts. And don’t let them kid themselves that a smoother ride with bonds won’t come at the cost of increased shortfall risk.

Long-dated Treasuries fell on Monday as investor attention turned to the US’ ballooning debt after Moody’s Ratings stripped the nation of its last top credit rating.

The selloff in Japan’s long-dated bonds is drawing international investors, who expect the securities to rebound as global trade turmoil abates.

Anyone betting on the end of the private credit boom has been on the back foot of late as the upstart $1.6 trillion asset class has notched up a string of wins. But the industry’s naysayers won’t be conceding defeat just yet.

In 2025, liquidity is not a background variable — it's a front-line risk factor, one that’s being tested repeatedly as global markets navigate a web of geopolitical uncertainty and macroeconomic signals.

While the U.S. and U.K. have different economic and regulatory landscapes, there are clear opportunities for the U.S. to improve retirement readiness by adopting some best practices from across the pond.

In this article, I will discuss another advantage of using the actuarial approach for retirement planning — helping your clients determine when they can afford to make big-ticket item purchases.

Practically every financial meltdown or crisis can be traced back to a misunderstanding of which assets are “risk-free.” Investors think they have a risk-free asset — it could be a mortgage-backed security, shares in a Bernie Madoff fund, Greek debt — and are surprised when it turns out not to be.

As we have learned repeatedly, the Fed will take extensive emergency measures if it perceives liquidity problems. Even above their congressional mandated objective of managing employment and prices, the Fed's top priority is preserving the banks.

Social Security is at the center of the fiscal emergency that threatens the US. Yet Washington is always reluctant to grapple with it honestly, partly because the issue is misunderstood.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent played down a selloff in US Treasuries, saying that there was nothing systemic at play, and also served warning against China not to attempt to devalue its exchange rate in retaliation for American tariff hikes.

Private equity firms are trying to regain some control after investors took advantage of one of the toughest fundraising environments in years.

When it’s finally completed seven years from now, Citadel LLC’s New York tower will be the second tallest building in the city, after the World Trade Center. It will also loom over the headquarters of JPMorgan Chase & Co. just a few hundred yards south along Park Avenue.

Ideally, nobody would have to worry about the burgeoning and multifaceted realm of nonbank finance: Let hedge funds, securities dealers and the like take whatever risks they want, as long as they bear the full consequences.

BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink pledged to open up private markets to millions of everyday investors, not just the wealthy few, contending individuals should share more of the gains from economic growth.

EQT AB will return $5.4 billion to investors this week after completing the sale of a stake in Nord Anglia Education Ltd., marking one of the most profitable recent private equity exits in Asia, people familiar with the matter said.

Europe’s plan to rearm in the face of Russian aggression and US detachment has already delivered a bonanza to equity investors. Credit funds are scrambling to get a share of the windfall, too.

The PPA has made a mistake in designating an MA as a QDIA. Perhaps the drafters of the PPA were thinking about accounts that are actually managed, but those participants do not default, so that flavor of MA is not a QDIA, and is typically reserved for executives of the sponsoring firm.

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio’s famous “All Weather” strategy has arrived in the exchange-traded fund market, just as the kind of macro-driven turmoil it seeks to guard against sweeps global assets.

Alternative investments including hedge funds and real estate will disappear from the portfolios of pension funds and endowments over the next 10 to 20 years, well-known institutional investment consultant Richard Ennis concludes in a recent report.

Overall, it is a system deeply rooted in familial interdependence. The responsibility for widows rests squarely with family members, reflecting a culture where support networks are built on kinship rather than institutional safety nets.

In a market as broad, opaque and inefficient as the municipal bond market, in which compliance oversight and efficiency are paramount, these initial efficiency gains are just the tip of what may prove to be a transformative technology iceberg.

The Trump administration took aim at China with a series of moves involving investment, trade and other issues that raises the risk ties may soon worsen between the US and its top economic rival.

We are about to enter a new era – the era of the personal defined benefit pension. And I predict that over the next few years, it will be RIAs that deliver these personal plans to millions of Americans. Before I explain how this transformation will unfold, let me first explain why it must unfold.

The professional development journey for financial professionals is best approached through a structured three-step process involving foundational designations, advanced level specializations, and niche market concentrations.

Adding cash-flow-matched bond strategies to a total return strategy appears to improve total return relative to risk by reducing the likelihood of poor outcomes.

Some of America’s leading financial firms are hoping to sell the White House on what sounds like a compelling idea: Open employer-sponsored retirement plans to the private investments they manage, so regular folks can reap returns currently reserved for the wealthy.

While it’s true that every administration brings policy shifts that can directly impact retirement savings, the speed and breadth of what is currently being proposed feels like we are headed into unprecedented territory.

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio has a new book to promote. So while I am loath to fuel the sales campaign, his latest bomb in an interview with the Financial Times — warning of a “death spiral” for Britain’s sovereign debt — requires a riposte.

Whether you’re speaking with Europe’s largest money manager, Australia’s giant pension funds, or a cash-rich insurer in Japan, there’s a resounding message you’ll hear when it comes to US Treasuries: They are still hard to beat.

Private equity wants access to Americans’ retirement accounts, and is lobbying President-elect Donald Trump’s administration to get it.

MicroStrategy Inc. bought $101 million of Bitcoin after announcing that it would use perpetual preferred stock as well as common shares and debt to acquire more of the cryptocurrency.

Fixed income is top of mind as investors look to a new interest rate regime. Sylvia Yeh dives into the outlook for 2025.

I will be looking at a few indicators in 2025 to tell me where financial markets are going. Most of them relate to the bond market, because it is both a window into the overall economy and an important component of how stocks and other risky assets are valued.

Xi Jinping and Donald Trump's bromance could be rekindled in 2025, if both sides play their cards right.