Howard Pressman Featured in CNBC article, "Should You Invest Like a Pension Fund?"

Howard Pressman Featured in CNBC Article, "Should You Invest Like a Pension Fund?"

September 11, 2015, CNBC — “With volatility in global markets persisting, investors and several entities, including pension funds, began pondering different investment strategies to protect themselves,” writes Fred Imbert in an article posted today on CNBC.

He points to the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), the second-largest pension fund in the U.S., recently considered shifting up to $20 billion of its assets—more than 10 percent of its $191 billion portfolio—away from stocks and real estate in favor of “safer” investments, such as long-term U.S. Treasury bonds.

“Financial experts are mixed about whether individual investors should consider a hedge similar to the pension plans,” writes Imbert, who interviewed Egan, Berger & Weiner partner Howard Pressman for his perspective on the situation.

“There are important distinctions between pension funds and human beings that need to be considered,” explained Pressman, noting that one of the main differences between retail investors and pension funds are in their objectives. “A pension fund’s main goal is to meet its payment obligations.”

He added that many of these pension funds’ investment strategies are often too complex for an average investor to implement. “The ‘risk mitigation’ strategies may be advisable for a large pension fund run by sophisticated managers, but these investments tend to lack liquidity, be very expensive and are too complicated for retail investors,” he said.

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