What’s wrong with private sector defined benefit pension plans? Everything? …Problems and Solutions (Originally posted October 27, 2008 re-hosted March 5, 2012) A series of actions/circumstances, any one of which could be individually damaging to the welfare of pensioners, when taken together could threaten to destroy the retirement of millions of Canadians. The problems are […]
Are you a Stock or a Bond? Create Your Own Pension Plan for a secure Financial Future by Moshe Milevsky This book addresses some of the more recent thinking and more subtle but critical aspects of financial planning for/in retirement. It is especially useful, not because it tells you how to do things, but it […]
Under-funded pension plans A few weeks ago in “Is your (defined benefit) company pension safe? I discussed some gauges that you may find useful in assessing the true state of the funded status of your DB pension plan like: difference between solvency and going concern basis, and actuarial assumptions like discount rates, salary increases, mortality […]
August 2008 Update: Florida Property Values and Legal Challenge of Discriminatory Property Taxes Property Values The May 2008 S%P Case-Schiller’s real estate index just released does not indicate that that Florida’s property values have bottomed if Miami is any indication of what is going on. The prices still pear about 30% above the long-term trend […]
Canada Supplementary Pension Plan (CSPP)-Highlights and discussion of Keith Ambachtsheer’s proposal in recent C. D. Howe paper Keith Ambachtsheer tabled a pension model sponsored by the C.D. Howe Institute which may potentially turn a new page in Canada’s pension system. You can read the proposal in its entirety at “The Canada Supplementary Pension Plan (CSPP): […]
Is your (defined benefit) company pension safe? Is your Defined Pension (DB) Plan Adequately Funded? Pension Plan Valuation: Art, science or magic? …and, the answers are: No, Maybe, Not science! Problem Statement A number of readers have approached me to see if I can help them get a sense of how secure is their company […]
Louis Lowenstein “The Investor’s Dilemma- How mutual funds are betraying your trust and what to do about it” Lowenstein tables a shocking indictment of the U.S. mutual fund industry. He paints an industry which started out as a ‘trust’ where managers behaved as fiduciaries on behalf of customers who didn’t have the time, skill or […]
Renewal in retirement…”painting” on a new “canvass” In my April 13, 2008 blog I refer to Jonathan Clements who gives ”freedom to pursue your passions” as one reason for spending a lifetime saving/investing to accumulate wealth. Some spend their entire working career doing what they are good at and they enjoy doing. Perhaps many more […]
flexibleRetirementPlanner is a real gem! (and it is free) I came across Jim Richmond’s flexibleRetirementPlanner by surfing the web for a good retirement planner with Monte Carlo capability and lots of flexibility to specify investment returns, taxes and cash flows. When I found this planner, its capabilities blew me away. It is the most capable […]
“A Demon of Our Own Design” by Richard Bookstaber Bookstaber’s book is appropriately subtitled Markets, Hedge Funds, and perils of Financial Innovation. He systematically looks at what precipitated the ‘Crash of 1987’ and LTCM, and Value Jet and Chernobyl. The catastrophic failures are usually the result of complexity mixed with tight coupling giving rise to […]
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