Publications

March 1991 (Revised May 1991)
Case

New York Life Insurance Co.: Pension Department

By: Robert J. Dolan

Analyzes competition in the pension fund industry. In particular, New York Life must decide whether to compete head-to-head with mutual fund giants by offering record-keeping services or to just continue to focus on selling investment products. Presents the results of... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Financial Instruments; Insurance Industry; Financial Services Industry

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June 2011 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Tough Choices for the Illinois Pension System

By: Robert C. Pozen and Brij S. Khurana

This case describes the precarious fiscal situation of the Illinois public pension system in the spring of 2009 and the accounting of pension plans by non-federal municipalities more generally. In February 2009, in the midst of a recession, recently-appointed Governor... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Financial Crisis; Financial Liquidity; Annuities; Financial Management; Financing and Loans; Taxation; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges; Illinois

June 2003 (Revised August 2003)
Case

Pension Policy at The Boots Company PLC

By: Luis M. Viceira and Akiko M. Mitsui

In early 2000, the trustees of the pension scheme at Boots considered a proposal to move 100% of the pension assets into a bond portfolio, which would be passively managed. The Boots Co. PLC was a leading retailer of cosmetics and toiletries in the United Kingdom, and... View Details

Keywords: Performance Productivity; Employees; Asset Management; Capital Structure; Investment Portfolio; Consumer Products Industry; United Kingdom

06 Aug 2012
News

The high cost of private pension savings

February 2019 (Revised March 2019)
Case

Banorte and the Capital Call Facility: Infrastructure Finance in Mexico

By: John D. Macomber, Carla Larangeira and Fernanda Miguel

As a result of Mexico´s pension industry deregulation, pension funds were able to invest in energy and infrastructure projects through a variety of financial instruments, particularly through Capital Development Certificates (CKDs), an asset class that served as a... View Details

Keywords: Financial Products; Fund Management; Capital Call Facility; Pension Funds; Infrastructure; Energy; Finance; Decision Making; Investment Funds; Financial Instruments; North America; Mexico

09 Sep 2013
News

Pension Plans: Flying Solo

August 2013 (Revised November 2015)
Case

Prudential Financial - General Motors Pension Risk Transfer: Back to the Future?

By: Luis M. Viceira and Emily A. Chien

In November 2012, Prudential Financial and General Motors closed on a $25.1B pension risk transfer (PRT) transaction, the largest of its kind to date by an order of magnitude both in the U.S. market and globally. In exchange for an in-kind transfer of $25.1B in... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Asset Management; Insurance; Retirement; Financial Services Industry; Insurance Industry

April 2020
Supplement

Should a Pension Fund Try to Change the World? Inside GPIF's Embrace of ESG

By: Rebecca Henderson

19 Feb 2012
News

Time to tighten rules on US pensions

2008
Chapter

Life-Cycle Funds

By: Luis M. Viceira

The U.S. retirement system has experienced a substantial transformation in recent years. It has evolved from a system in which employees relied mainly on Social Security and professionally managed defined benefit (DB) pension plans sponsored by their employers to... View Details

Keywords: Retirement; Personal Finance; Investment Funds; Compensation and Benefits; United States

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December 2017
Teaching Note

Vicki Fuller: Chief Investment Officer of New York State's $150+ Billion Employee Pension Fund

By: Steven Rogers and Valerie Mosley

Teaching Note for HBS No. 317-044. View Details

2014
Working Paper

Lobbying Behavior of Governmental Entities: Evidence from Public Pension Accounting Rules

By: Abigail Allen and Reining Petacchi

We examine the lobbying behavior of state governments in the development of recently issued public pension accounting standards GASB 67 and 68. Consistent with opportunistic motivations, we find that states' opposition to the liability increasing provisions embedded in... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Accounting Industry; United States

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26 Jun 2018
Working Paper Summaries

The Impact of Pensions and Insurance on Global Yield Curves

Keywords: by Robin Greenwood and Annette Vissing-Jorgensen; Insurance; Financial Services

April 2004
Teaching Note

IBET Pension Fund, The (TN)

By: Arthur I Segel

Teaching Note to (9-800-133). View Details

Keywords: Investment; Investment Funds; Valuation; Strategy

November 2018 (Revised December 2018)
Case

CalSTRS Takes on Gun Violence

By: Vikram S Gandhi and Caitlin Reimers

In Spring of 2018, Chris Ailman, CIO of the $200 billion pension plan for California public school teachers (CalSTRS) was mandated by his board to “prioritize engagement with makers and retailers of firearms in California” following a series of gun-related tragedies in... View Details

Keywords: Pension Funds; Pension Plan; Asset Allocation; Screening; ESG; Gun Violence; Business and Government Relations; Values and Beliefs; Education Industry; California; United States

July 2002 (Revised August 2003)
Case

Unilever Superannuation Fund vs. Merrill Lynch, The

By: Andre F. Perold and Joshua Musher

In 2001, the Unilever Superannuation Fund sued Merrill Lynch for damages of 130 million British pounds. Over the period 1977 to 1998, the Unilever Fund had significantly underperformed the benchmark, and its trustees contended that the poor returns resulted from... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Lawsuits and Litigation; Performance Evaluation; Agreements and Arrangements; Customer Relationship Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Asset Management; Risk Management; Legal Liability; Financial Services Industry; United Kingdom

2020
Working Paper

How Do Private Equity Fees Vary Across Public Pensions?

By: Juliane Begenau and Emil Siriwardane

We study how investment fees vary within private-capital funds. Net-of-fee return clustering suggests that most funds have two tiers of fees, and we decompose differences across tiers into both management and performance-based fees. Managers of venture capital funds... View Details

Keywords: Pension Funds; Fee Dispersion; Search And Negotiation Frictions; Private Equity; Investment Funds