Performance enhancements for defined benefit pension plans

Over the next several decades, traditional corporate and government pension plans will encounter increasingly severe problems in many countries. Contributing factors include underfunding status, demographic trends, low savings rates, and inefficient investment/saving strategies. This chapter takes up the last point, showing that a systematic forward-looking asset–liability management model can improve performance across many reward and risk measures. The model takes the form of a multi-stage stochastic program. We approximate the stochastic program via a set of state-dependent policy rules. A duration-enhancing overlay rule improves performance during economic contractions. The methodology is evaluated via historical backtests and a highly flexible, forward-looking financial planning tool.