2011 Pension Conference: U.S. Retirement Savings – Webcasts and Podcasts

On 2 June 2011, the CFA Society of Madison hosted the 2011 Pension Conference: U.S. Retirement Savings — Looking for a Better Way. The conference gathered experienced investors, plan sponsors, consultants, and legislators to explore the current state of U.S. retirement savings.

Select webcasts and podcasts from the conference are now available.


A New Framework for Evaluating Design and Governance of a Pension System - David Villa, CFA
David C. Villa, CFA, explains why there needs to be a new framework for discussion of retirement savings and compares the costs of traditional defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans. He also introduces an options-based framework and discusses governance and design issues.

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Estimating Portfolio Return Expectations - John Pirone, CFA, Ehiwario Efeyini, Phillip M. Kivarkis, CFA
The panelists discuss the outlook for various asset classes. Topics include the strategic horizon perspective and the connections between market-related returns and risk; estimating portfolio returns for bond, commodity, equity, and currency markets; and portfolio diversification and de-risking.

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Rethinking Public Pension Plan Design - William "Flick" Fornia
William B. “Flick” Fornia discusses the current state of public pension plans across the United States and assesses how the pension crisis developed. He argues that defined-benefit plans continue to be a viable alternative to individual defined-contribution plans provided that pension plans implement certain changes to maintain solvency over the long term.

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Wisconsin Retirement System: Design Features That Support Improved Outcomes
Keith Bozarth and David Stella discuss how plan design features can improve pension plan outcomes, using the Wisconsin Retirement System as an example.

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