Defined Contribution Strategies

NISA Investment Advisors Winner
For its continued dedication to defined contribution and retirement income—“retirement-driven investing,” as NISA calls it—by hiring away target-date fund expert Bill Marshall from AllianceBernstein, in addition to Mark Fortier’s appointment in 2015.

Prudential
For its push into lifetime income options such as the IncomeFlex plan, which tracks market value and income base to convert accumulated assets into guaranteed income. Also for creating solutions for employees to pay off student loan debt as well as save for retirement.

Investment Outsourcing

Fund Evaluation Group
For being unafraid to “give their real opinion or make unconventional recommendations,” according to one nominator, and for its ability to analyze where an institution has a competitive advantage—and where it shouldn’t try to beat the market.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management Winner
For its involvement in annuitization deals as an OCIO—most notably in WestRock’s $2.5 billion risk transfer with Prudential—its continued expansion in the space with acquisitions, and for securing high client satisfaction in overall service, performance, and fees.

UBS
For its team led by Frank van Etten and Charles Service, and for the most recent expansion into discretionary services targeting institutional clients with less than $250 million in assets by partnering with UBS’ wealth management unit.

Corporate Investment Strategies

Goldman Sachs Asset Management
For topping CIO’s LDI survey once again in client satisfaction– nearly two-thirds of asset-owning respondents were “extremely satisfied”—besting industry mainstays like PIMCO and NISA.

Legal & General Investment Management America
For its holistic de-risking approach that not only hedges liabilities but also seeks returns, and for pushing for a move away from market-based benchmarks to liability-based ones. Also for its innovation in de-risking solutions for small pension plans.

Nuveen Asset Management Winner
For its “family of building block pension indexes” that aim to match traditional defined benefit plan liability and show lower tracking error versus pension liabilities than what’s seen in today’s market—“without the need for derivatives.”

Corporate Liability Strategies

PIMCO
For its holistic de-risking approach, “highly customized and constantly evolving” completion management strategies—which combine PIMCO’s credit capabilities and derivatives expertise and incorporate factors beyond traditional risk-factor matching targets—and glidepath implementation.

Prudential Winner
For the firm’s continued dominance in the pension-risk transfer space, having struck a number of large-scale deals in 2016—most notably WestRock’s $2.5 billion risk transfer and UTC’s nearly $2 billion buyout, among other reinsurance and annuity deals.