At Horizon Actuarial Services, LLC, we are actuaries, not investment professionals. Therefore, when developing assumptions as to what returns a pension plan’s assets might be expected to earn in the future, we look to our colleagues in the investment advisory community. Each year, we survey different investment advisors and ask them to provide their “capital market assumptions” – their expectations for future risk and returns for different asset classes in which pension funds commonly invest.
The information gathered from this survey can help answer the commonly-asked question: “Are my plan’s investment return assumptions still reasonable?” Of course, there are many factors to consider when evaluating a plan’s investment return assumptions, such as its asset allocation and the maturity of its participant population. Any of these factors can make the expected return for one plan very different from others. Therefore, this report does not opine on the reasonableness of any one plan’s investment return assumptions. Nevertheless, we hope this report will be a useful resource for trustees, actuaries, and investment professionals alike.
Horizon Actuarial sincerely thanks the 35 investment advisors who participated in the 2017 edition of this survey.
The report on the results of the 2017 Survey can be viewed below.
The information gathered from this survey can help answer the commonly-asked question: “Are my plan’s investment return assumptions still reasonable?” Of course, there are many factors to consider when evaluating a plan’s investment return assumptions, such as its asset allocation and the maturity of its participant population. Any of these factors can make the expected return for one plan very different from others. Therefore, this report does not opine on the reasonableness of any one plan’s investment return assumptions. Nevertheless, we hope this report will be a useful resource for trustees, actuaries, and investment professionals alike.
Horizon Actuarial sincerely thanks the 35 investment advisors who participated in the 2017 edition of this survey.
The report on the results of the 2017 Survey can be viewed below.
This is the sixth edition of the survey for which we have published a report. Prior editions can be found below:
RSS Feed