Research

For plan participants, target date funds simplify the complex task of saving and investing for retirement by automatically allocating assets based on each...

Whether a plan sponsor favors active or passive management, choosing a target date manager is an active decision that may have much greater fiduciary...

Better than measures of the past for gauging future excess return potential.

Financial market volatility has been uncharacteristically low over the past few years, and now appears to be returning to a more normal, higher level. 

While aggregate consumer spending is robust, the data obscure risks spawned by income inequality.

Court determines that risk retention rules should not apply to open-market CLOs.

It may take some time for the markets to find their bottom. However, our recession indicators are not rising, our cycle indicators are not flashing warnings and our realtime activity indicators say this is a technical selling correction that will exhaust itself.

As we enter 2018, the macro environment continues to remain supportive for credit markets generally. However, the prolonged stretch of low volatility has driven yield-hungry investors to overlook potential risks. Against this backdrop, we believe the most significant risk in the loan market resides in CCC and below-rated loans, as any unexpected uptick in volatility skews risk significantly to the downside.

When financial market historians look back at 2017, the year probably will be highlighted for its tightly compressed levels of volatility. Another notable aspect of the year is that, heading into late December, there has not been a single month of negative returns for the S&P 500 index.

An unconstrained opportunity set should not equate to unconstrained risk. In this analysis, we explain why clearly defined risk tolerances, not specific return targets, are most important when approaching today's challenging fixed income markets.