Liquidity management is becoming increasingly important for pension funds. The best way to improve liquidity management is to set up a treasury function within the matching portfolio.

Matching portfolios are supposed to match, that’s all. The simpler you make them, the higher your chance of success. Use any time you save to achieve excess returns in your return portfolio.

Reducing the risk of benefit cuts and non-indexation will introduce a sense of calm into the pension fund boardroom. Dynamic balance sheet policies put this at your fingertips.

Eleven years after the fall of Lehman Brothers, crisis indicators are deep in the red. This is the time for pension funds to resist the temptations of taking too much risk. A safe haven is paramount.

Scenario thinking is an ideal tool for pension funds to identify risks. It is key, though, that the scenarios be used frequently.

Financial market developments are completely unpredictable. Scenario thinking will help you identify real risks and tailor your investment strategy to what is actually happening.

Dynamic balance sheet policies reduce the risk of benefit cuts and non-indexation. However, by no means all funds pursue this rational risk policy, because it feels counterintuitive.

A bond benchmark distorts interest rate risk hedges. Get rid of the benchmark to avoid surprises.

Whatever happens, you should always be satisfied with your hedging outcome. Scenario thinking will put an ideal matching portfolio at your fingertips.

ALM emphasis quantitative results, but lacks any qualitative storylines. You need these storylines to flesh out scenarios and to help you understand what may happen. Paramount when it comes to preparing for an uncertain future.