The History of the Pension - The Pensions Timebomb

Depending who you ask there is a pension crisis. Government provided universal pensions have become unaffordable in an age of austerity and fiscal and sovereign debt crises. With people expected to live much longer than history in developed economies the projected cost of the pension system has ballooned. But what is the solution? Do you raise the age of entitlement? Do you shift more of the onus to save money for retirement onto employers and individuals? Each country must find its own mix of solutions to funding retirement for the growing aging population. But even the private pension industry has come under pressure in recent years. The financial crisis saw market values plummet, and spooked many to shift portfolio allocations away from equities and growth assets into bonds and income assets. But the problem is we have had a massive bull market in bonds, and that wont last forever - indeed with bond yields so low the private and public pension industries will struggle to produce sufficient returns on their assets; with old assumptions no longer being true. Whether you believe in personal responsibility or government provided, retirement savings and pensions are an issue that affects us all; directly and indirectly.

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Finance Documentaries: http://www.financedocumentaries.com/2012/11/the-history-of-pension-pensions-timebomb.html

Jeremy Grantham Interviews

Concluding the week's focus on asset allocation videos, here's two interviews with Jeremy Grantham. One was conducted during the financial crisis and stock market crash, the other was conducted at the end of last year. Both interviews are quite interesting and insightful and carry messages that we can still use today in thinking about the current markets as well as broader themes in portfolio strategy and asset allocation. For those who don't know, Jeremy Grantham is the G in the investment management company GMO. GMO has made a real name for themselves as value investors and asset allocators - indeed they have a bunch of useful free resources on their website.



CNBC's Maria Bartiromo interviews GMO strategist Jeremy Grantham who discusses the Fed's policies and its effects on the stock market. Originally screened on CNBC.



Consuelo Mack interviews Jeremy Grantham (on WealthTrack) during the global financial crisis and stock market crash to get his views on the market and investing in general.

Finance Documentaries: http://www.financedocumentaries.com/2011/07/jeremy-grantham-interviews.html

Capital IQ Panel Discussion on Asset Allocation

Continuing the week's focus on Asset Allocation here's a panel discussion on asset allocation strategies following the financial crisis. The panelists are all well versed in their particular fields and offer some interesting views on how asset allocation has changed as well as reacted (e.g. opportunistic funds, allocations) through the global financial crisis. Well worth a look for an intelligent discussion on some of the contemporary issues in asset allocation strategy.

A panel discussion on asset allocation strategies following the global financial crisis at the 2010 Capital IQ Investor Leadership Forum in New York. Panelists include Carson Boneck, Head of Quantitative Research at Capital IQ; Ray Joseph, Deputy CIO for the New Jersey Dept. of Treasury; Sebastian Echavarria, Managing Director at Highbridge Capital Management, LLC; Andrew Alford, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs Asset Management.



Finance Documentaries: http://www.financedocumentaries.com/2011/07/capital-iq-panel-discussion-on-asset.html

The Future For Investors

This is a talk by Jeremy Siegel given on the 9th of October 2007, and is part of the week's focus on asset allocation videos. In this talk Jeremy details some very interesting findings from his research of over 200 years of stock market returns. He notes the magic 7% long run average return figure, he also points out the usefulness of the earnings yield in determining whether stocks are attractive (i.e. if the earnings yield is above the long run average then that's attractive). Siegel also details his views on global demographics, and the implications for stock market investing, retirement, and emerging markets.

Jeremy James Siegel (born November 14, 1945) is the Russell E. Palmer Professor of Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Siegel comments extensively on the economy and financial markets: he appears regularly on networks such CNN, CNBC and NPR, and writes regular columns for Kiplinger's Personal Finance and Yahoo! Finance.


Lecture Jeremy Siegel 2007 from Mirae Asset on Vimeo.

Finance Documentaries: http://www.financedocumentaries.com/2011/07/future-for-investors.html

True Goals in Investing

In this installment of the week's focus on Asset Allocation videos, we are treated with an interesting talk from Charles D Ellis entitled True Goals in Investing. The talk was given at the 5th Mirae Asset Management Asset Allocation Forum, April 29th 2008. Ellis presents invaluable lessons on investing, portfolio strategy, manager selection, investing governance and more. He shares insights from his work at Yale's endowment fund and his firm Greenwich Associates.

Charles D. 'Charley' Ellis founded Greenwich Associates in 1972 with an initial offering in personal trust services, large corporate pensions, and large corporate banking in the United States. What began as a single office in Greenwich, Connecticut for 10 employees, came to comprise over 150 professionals in four locations on three continents. The firm’s client base has expanded from 28 North American-based clients in its first year of business to over 250 global relationships today.


5th Mirae Asset Allocation Forun_2008_Charles Ellis from Mirae Asset on Vimeo.

Finance Documentaries: http://www.financedocumentaries.com/2011/07/true-goals-in-investing.html

David Swensen on Asset Allocation Strategy

Another asset allocation lecture, we are treated with an interesting talk from David Swensen, Chief Investment Officer of the Yale University endowment fund. Swensen talks about three aspects of portfolio management and investment strategy: stock selection, market timing, and of course asset allocation. He notes that while stock selection has its place, along with market timing, in total it is a minus sum game and is best applied to inefficient markets. Meanwhile he maintains that asset allocation and diversification are the keys, as is a focus on equity-oriented investment.

David Swensen is the chief investment officer of Yale University, where he has produced stunning results in managing portfolios over 25 years. In this lecture, he talks about managing a portfolio for individual investors and stresses on the importance of diversification and equity-orientation.



Finance Documentaries: http://www.financedocumentaries.com/2011/07/david-swensen-on-asset-allocation.html

Strategic vs Tactical Asset Allocation

This video is part of a week-long focus on asset allocation, where we will be posting a string of asset allocation lectures and discussions.  Click on the tag "Asset Allocation" to find other videos and documentaries on the topic.

In this video there is a discussion on strategic asset allocation vs tactical asset allocation. Asset allocation is the all important element of building your investment portfolio, it should take into account an investors risk preferences and return requirements to produce optimal expected outcomes. Indeed studies have shown that more than 100% of returns are determined by asset allocation! So this may well be a topic worth investing some time in!

Our topic of the week focuses on Strategic vs Tactical Asset Allocation. It's an age old debate often with varying answers and we will be exploring some of these concepts. Our guest hosts this evening: Cobie Legrange, a fundamental Analyst from Acsis; Roland Rousseau, a Quantitative Analyst from ADEX; Andrew Rumbelow, Chief Investment Officer at Sanlam Multi Manager International.



Finance Documentaries: http://www.financedocumentaries.com/2011/07/strategic-vs-tactical-asset-allocation.html