Defined Benefit Consulting

Wurts & Associates is experienced in helping corporate, Taft-Hartley, and public fund plan fiduciaries make prudent investment decisions. We believe that successful defined benefit investing requires an acute understanding of the fund sponsor's contribution practices, the risk tolerances of the fund fiduciaries, and a commitment to control costs, in order to ensure top quartile net investment returns.

Our professionals apply our consulting process to each engagement in order to help the fund sponsor identify and implement important aspects of administering these plans, such as asset allocation, manager selection, and fiduciary education.

Asset Allocation

After understanding the overall strategic objectives of the plan and how it relates to the fund sponsor's capacity to contribute and the fiduciary's appetite for risk, our professionals evaluate the existing investment strategy to see if it is consistent with the funding requirements of the plan. We model the liabilities using software developed by actuaries. It enables the projecting of the funding status of the plan under various discount rates and benefit assumptions. A combination of mean/variance optimization, surplus optimization, and downside risk analysis provides for evaluation of the assets within the context of the liabilities. This helps the client determine the best asset mix based upon several key factors such as investment risk, anticipated total plan return, and expected future contributions.

Manager Selection

When it becomes necessary to hire an investment manager, Wurts & Associates' professionals work to identify six to eight candidates that exhibit exceptional investment excellence, organizational stability, and an appropriate fit with the existing investment strategies employed by the plan. Our firm has a dedicated team of manager search professionals that interview managers, perform on-site manager due diligence, and quantitatively evaluate potential firms to identify the strongest managers by investment style.

Wurts & Associates favors firms that are owned by the investment professionals and have exhibited stability amongst the professional staff. We critically review the investment philosophy and process so that we can make a judgment regarding the repeatability of superior investment results. Our findings are presented to the client to help them understand the many quantitative and qualitative attributes of each candidate. Typically three to four of these firms are selected for final interviews by the client.

Fiduciary Education

Educating plan fiduciaries is one of the most rewarding services our professionals deliver to our clients. Given that many of our defined benefit plans are governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974, our clients have an enormous responsibility in supervising the investment process. We believe that one of our primary responsibilities as investment consultant is helping our clients understand complicated investment issues so that they can make the most prudent decisions possible. Our professionals conduct educational presentations for our clients; publish papers on topics of interest; and research specific problems to help clients solve unique issues.