• An overview of the German economy: where are we now and where are we likely to be going?
• Evaluating the outlook for 2007: what are the projections, risks and prospective returns?
• Assessing the landscape for pension funds and other institutional investors: crisis or opportunity?

• Are bonds still the most popular investment vehicle for institutional investors?
        o  Is there a bubble and will the bubble burst?
• Gauging investor appetite for riskier fixed-interest products including emerging markets and high yield bonds
• What are investor’s appetite like for equities and property?
• Are institutional investors in Germany warming to alternative investments: where to put your money?

• Demonstrating the need for an ALM study and assessing its benefits
• How to build a successful portfolio strategy that enables you to overcome market volatility and the need for tactical allocation
      o Master KAG
      o Global Custody
      o Implementing overlay structures
• Assessing the benefits derived from diversification

• How do you define risk and what is the optimal implementation of risk budgets? 
• Assessing the pros and cons of adopting a Duration Strategy and examining the alternatives
• Examining trading margins for diversified assets
• Do Liability Driven Investments only generate small levels of alpha or are larger levels of alpha possible?
• Is it possible to have pure Liability Driven Investments with the current savings ration and solvency issues?

• Who is Corem and what do they do?
• Best practice strategies in evaluate your liabilities 
• Evaluating the various types of ALM and determining which is the best for your business
• Assessing your appetite for risk: can you reduce your investment risk and increase returns?
• Evaluating current and emerging trends in ALM

• Assessing the pros and cons of investment vehicles
      o Real-Estate Funds, Alpha Managers
      o Convertibles, currency and commodities
      o Infrastructure Funds, Private Equity
• Achieving the perfect balance: how many alternative investments should be invested in at once?

• Which pooling structures/vehicles are available and where do they fit?
• Assessing the potential barriers to pooling?
• Which countries should participate, and where is the value added the greatest? 
• What should the investment strategy look like, taking into account that complexity is the main cost driver?

• An overview of Unilever’s pooling strategy and how it will effect the structure and strategy of its individual pension funds
• Evaluating to what extent pooling will improve asset management and allow leveraging of economies of scale
• To what extent will pooling lower risk and enhance net return potential?

• Types and objectives for overlay strategies
• Implementing active asset allocation as overlay
• Incorporating portable alpha

• Evaluating how a master KAG can simplify the setting up of your investment strategy
• To what degree can strategies be integrated based on tactical asset decisions in order to obtain exposure to different markets and control investments?
• Assessing the need for daily performance measurement analysis to enable quicker market reaction

• Polarisation profile of employer's and employee's interests
• Using individual risk budgets for higher returns 
• One strategy fits all: asset allocation, shortfall risk, expected returns

• Critically evaluating the pros and cons of pan European pension funds
          o What saving can be made?
• Is the creation of a pan European pension fund easier for those schemes with DC rather than DB
• What alternatives exist and what are the benefits?
          o Pan European investment pooling vehicles
• Assessing the implications and overcoming the challenges of implementing IORPs
• Assessing the implications of having employees in different national locations

• Information delivery: demonstrating the need for consolidated up to date and meaningful information
• Empowering the trustees: what is needed to make optimally informed decision?
• Assessing the use of investment controlling to support governance efforts

• Litigation has become a legitimate and effective tool for change 
• Investors are accomplishing more than just monetary returns
• Cross-border cooperation of institutional investors has increased effectiveness
• Investors must hold companies and executives responsible for misconduct

• A strategic overview of the Environment Agency Active Pension Fund
• Why change your investment strategy?
• Examining what needs to be done before changing your strategy: research and outcomes
• Evaluating strategic asset allocation in order to achieve greater governance
• Implementating, selecting and assessing manager requirements
• Evaluating the environmental risk

• Defining and measuring risk: what are the options?
• Using risk budgets to set asset allocations: what are the key steps?
• Monitoring and controlling risk: why do bad things happen to good risk budgets?

• Global custody and why?
• Assessing the benefits and costs of choosing a single large fund compared to many segregated funds 
• Achieving an efficient transition form an old structure to a new structure

• Weighing up the pros and cons of outsourcing
          o Are there really savings to be made?
• Critically examining the processes and procedures needed to implement an outsourcing strategy
          o Assessing the costs involved
• Examining how PKA and its partners have set up an independent pension administration company that allows them to retain control and potentially generate revenues

• Addressing the issue of liabilities within international accounting practices
• Assessing the use of CTAs in an international accounting environment
• Addressing internationalisation, consistent accounting & fund vehicles
• Assessing the impact of the IAS regulations and how this effects the structuring of your portfolio

• An overview of outside funding and the different vehicles available
• CTAs: what exactly are they?
• Examining the benefits and costs of Outside Funding & CTAs
• Assessing what is needed to implement a CTA: is it really worth the time and effort?

• Assessing the current climate for real-estate investments: is confidence low?
• Evaluating real-estate investments as an attractive investment vehicle in light of recent fund freezes
• Assessing current and future legislation for the enablement of real estate trusts
• Weighing up the opportunities and costs of diversifying regionally, nationally and globally
• Is liquidity an issue? addressing property disposal in order to gain the full picture

• Examining why Institutional investors are shying away from Hedge Funds: are their reasons valid?
• Developing and implementing a core satellite strategy which allows you to add vehicles to your investment portfolio
• Evaluating the future of Hedge Funds in Germany: is sentiment likely to change?

• Assessing risk management as an integral part of your investment process
• Evaluating best practice strategies available for risk management
• Examining the role of risk management within the due diligence process

• Examining the need for improvements in service standards
• Ensuring transparency: clearly identifying what is meant by transparency and where transparency is needed
• Demonstrating the need for a consistent standard in performance measurement and benchmarking
• Ensuring you choose the right provider with the right approach for your business
• Analysis of different business models: which one is right for your business?
• Examining the implications for your tax position

While some claim that pension fund investments are about to experience a paradigm shift we will show that the best practice in pension fund governance is a  straightforward application of corporate finance principles.

Workshop participants will learn why pension fund investing should follow the same principles of corporate risk management, linking pension fund investment to the corporate treasury department. We will identify the main differences between the actuarial approach to liability valuation and the financial economists approach.

Participants will learn everything a practitioner needs to know about the many forms of derivatives that are offered to defuse surplus risk. Finally we will rank the most common products in terms of what matters most i.e. value creation or destruction.

• Why pension fund investing should follow the same principles of corporate risk management
• What does the treasury think about pension fund investing?
• Valuation of pension liabilities: actuaries versus economists
  

• The external funding debate
• Why the rating agencies got it wrong
• Differences between US and Europe
• External funding and its impact on bondholders, shareholders and the PSV

• Actuaries and the long run argument
• Inconsistencies between actuarial approach and Nobel prize winning finance
• Separating economics from Voodoo
• Go with basic principles: why ALM is more easy than some (most) make you believe
  

• Pension fund surplus and option pricing
• The use of derivatives in ALM: from caps to inflation swaps
• Cash flow matching or liability approximation?

Bernd Scherer, Lecturer, European Business School & Carnegie Mellon University, Author & Head of Research, Deutsche Asset Management.

Bernd heads DeAM’s global quantitative research based in New York. He has published four books on portfolio optimisation and asset liability management as well as over 50 articles in Risk, Financial Analysts Journal, Journal of Portfolio Management, Journal of Asset Management, Financial Markets and Portfolio
Management to name a few. In addition to his responsibilities at DeAM, which include all aspects of quantitative investing as well as portfolio engineering, Bernd teaches courses on quantitative stock selection and tactical asset allocation models at Carnegie Mellon and Columbia University as well as a course on modern asset liability management at the European Business School.