Investing January 6, 2010

December Best Month of Year for Corporate Pension Funding

January 6, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – U.S. corporate pension plans turned in their best performance in terms of funding ratio for 2009 in December, up 3% to 85.5%, according to the latest monthly data from BNY Mellon Asset Management.
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A news release said the driving forces behind the numbers were a healthier equity market and a yield increase for long Aa corporate bonds.

According to the announcement, assets for the typical U.S. corporate pension plan rose 0.9% and liabilities declined 2.6% for the month.  For the year through December 31, 2009, BNY Mellon reported the funding ratio for the typical U.S. corporate pension plan is up 11.6%.

“On average, U.S. corporate pension plans have improved their funding status during five of the last six months of 2009 as equity markets in the U.S. and around the world rallied,” said Peter Austin, executive director of BNY Mellon Pension Services, the pension services arm of BNY Mellon Asset Management, in the announcement.  “But the bigger impact on funded status during the month of December was the 25 basis-point increase in the Aa corporate bond discount rate, which is at its highest level since June.” 

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Austin said plan sponsors are expected to continue their risk-reduction efforts in 2010 to help dampen the potential impact of market volatility.

Deals and People January 6, 2010

Fellows to Focus on Northeast for EFA

January 6, 2010 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - ERISA Fiduciary Advisors, Inc. has hired a new manager to focus on sales and consulting in the northeastern United States.
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According to a press release, Richard “Dick” B. Fellows, Jr, JD, LLM has joins ERISA Fiduciary Advisors, Inc as the NE Managing Director responsible for Sales and Consulting to plan sponsors in the Boston area.      

ERISA Fiduciary Advisors, Inc. (EFA) is an independent, fee-based, Investment Advisory and Retirement Consulting Firm “focused on corporate retirement plans providing unbiased investment advice, fiduciary risk management and retirement plan consulting to the midsize retirement plan market of $5 million to $250 million in assets under management,” according to the firm, which has offices in Florida, Massachusetts and plans to expand into Ohio.  .

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According to the announcement, Fellows has made his career “building the Investment & Retirement Planning Divisions’” of several well-known retirement industry firms, including Fidelity, First Mercantile Trust, Loomis-Sayles and Mercer.      

“Dick is an excellent addition to our team; he has the knowledge and technical background to be a real resource for us and the clients he will serve.  We couldn’t be more excited to have an industry veteran of his caliber on the team” says President and Founder, Thomas B. Bastin in announcing the move.     

ERISA Fiduciary Advisors, Inc. specializes in the implementation of a complete fiduciary management process with up to 27 identifiable practices, according to the firm.  It offers two fiduciary advisor options that include an Investment Advisor agreement and a higher level; Investment Manager agreement designed to transfer investment risks away from the plan fiduciaries.

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