Inflation: What If It Doesn’t?
For more reading on inflation, check out Puzzles of Inflation, Money, and Debt by Thomas S. Coleman, Bryan J. Oliver, and Laurence B. Siegel from the...
Risk Management
Passive vs. Active Management: Three Myths in DC Plan Strategy Selection
Actively managed strategies should have a place at the core of well-designed retirement plans. That a broad cross-section of the...
Machine Learning: Explain It or Bust
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it.” And so it is with complex machine learning (ML). ML...
Book Review: Boom and Bust
Boom and Bust: A Global History of Financial Bubbles. 2020. William Quinn and John D. Turner. Cambridge University Press. Asset...
4×4 Asset Allocation: Four Goals over an Investment Horizon
Risk and reward in investing are often defined in terms of the nominal dollar value of the portfolio: dollar gains,...
When Indices Are Cut: What Withdrawals Teach about Risk-Control Index Design
In an ideal world, the set of indices underlying a fixed index annuity (FIA) would remain unchanged throughout the product’s...
Dow 36,000! Crypto $3 Trillion! Charting a Wild Decade in Finance
Posted In: Best Of, Careers, Coronavirus, Drivers of Value, Economics, Equity Investments, Fixed Income, Future States, History & Geopolitics, Leadership,...
Welcome to our SMALL podcast – Social Media And Law Livestream
By MARK PEARSON Follow @Journlaw The first episode of our occasional SMALL podcast – Social Media and Law Livestream –...
The relevance of sustainable insurance in Europe
As the impacts of climate change rise and interest in renewable energies peaks, sustainability is becoming a central priority for...
Unnatural cat: Why cyber insurance has a sell-side problem
They say insurance is a product that is sold not bought – and as a result, we often spend a...
Evergrande: Not So Grand Financial Statements?
Evergrande Group is the latest listed company to unexpectedly teeter on the verge of bankruptcy. When businesses are thrust into...
Sustainability, ESG, and the Future of Investing: A Review
Posted In: Best Of, Drivers of Value, Economics, Equity Investments, Future States, Performance Measurement & Evaluation, Philosophy, Portfolio Management, Risk...
Actively Managed Funds Are Appropriate Options for 401(k) Plans
Discussions of the relative merits of passive vs. active investing are ubiquitous these days and — so long as discussions...
To Invest Internationally, or Not — That Is the Question
What follows is a hypothetical conversation between two fictional investment professionals, US-based Bob Smith and his colleague Sandra Mueller, who...
Improving the Odds of Value Investing
Introduction Ted Theodore first wrote about value versus momentum stocks way back in 1984, but almost 40 years later, there...
Peak Diversification: How Many Stocks Best Diversify an Equity Portfolio?
Perhaps the biggest tradeoff for equity portfolio managers is between specialization and risk reduction. The fewer stocks they research and...
Building Optimized Portfolios with JPMorgan’s 2021 Forecasts
In developing a long-range investment strategy, investors conduct strategic asset allocation (SAA) work in pursuit of the portfolio that best...
How to Manage Inflation Risk: The Local Inflation Factor
Governments around the world have deployed massive stimulus to battle the economic effects of COVID-19. And as economies reopen, there...
Fraud and Deception Detection: Five Language Fingerprints
Last month, I described how computer-aided text-based analysis can help uncover fraud and deception in company communications. But what other...
ESG Matters: Global Trends and Transitions
How are women growing in importance in the investment ecosystem? How are firms approaching the sustainability journey? What is the...
Impact-Weighted Accounting: The Missing Ingredient?
If the Sustainable Investment Trinomial = (Risk/Return) + ImpactThen, Impact = ESG Alpha? The Sustainable Investment Premise Investment professionals slice...