At a glance
- Long experience of consulting services for numerous direct insurance and re-insurance companies
- Investment consulting for health and accident insurers considering the health insurance ordinance (“Verordnung über die Krankenverischerung” (KVV)), the Swiss Solvency Test (SST), and other legal regulations
- Consulting services for life and property insurers regarding the development of the investment strategy, asset manager selection and legal issues in the institutional asset management
- Professional consulting services for building insurers regarding all issues of professional investments
Health and accident insurers
Health and accident insurers often have considerable assets in the form of capital investments. In terms of investments, they are also faced with many legal and regulatory requirements.
Our services for health and accident insurers encompass the following:
- Developing and optimizing of the investment strategy (asset liability management), taking into account the Swiss Solvency Test (SST), and the risk profile of the insurer according to art. 43 KVAV
- Preparation of investment regulations and guidelines in cooperation with the client and in accordance with art. 45 KVAV
- Support in the asset manager selection, taking into account client-specific criteria, fees, and legal requirements according to art. 44 KVAV
- Monitoring of the investments as an essential part of the investment process (investment controlling)
- Legal advice on the complex requirements in the institutional asset management
Life and property insurers
Life and property insurers need to balance return, risk and regulatory guidelines. In addition, the constantly changing risk profile as well as the efficiency of investments must be monitored. We assist life and property insurers in all issues regarding the professional investment of their assets:
- Periodic evaluation of the risk profile from the economic and regulatory standpoints
- Evaluating the risk profile with regard to the requirements of Swiss GAAP FER 41
- Establishing and adjusting the risk/return-optimized capital structure (investment strategy)
- Governance check regarding best practice
- Preparing and examining asset management contracts
- Ongoing monitoring of return and risks
- Regularly checking compliance with regulatory guidelines (investment guidelines for insurance companies, KVV, etc.)
Building insurers
The cantonal building insurance is obligatory in the majority of the Swiss Cantons. Normally, cantonal building insurances are public companies that invest in various funds with different investment strategies and restrictions. We assist building insurers in all issues regarding the professional investment of their assets:
- Evaluating and adjusting of the investment strategy (asset liability management)
- Assisting in the implementation of the strategy (e.g. selection of global custodian, defining of mandate structure, revising of investment guidelines, asset manager selection, etc.)
- Professional investment controlling (evaluation of the investment results and peer group comparisons of total assets and asset managers, proposing of measures, recommendations, etc.)
Publications
Illiquid Investments: Challenges ahead
Illiquid investments should appeal to pension funds because of their long-term benefits, but are opportunities equal?
Is faith in past winners justified?
Rankings of top performers are publicly available for retail funds. However, databases for institutional mandates (segregated accounts and institutional funds) are still incomplete and rare. For our historical simulation of picking past winners we use a set of track records that were submitted by asset managers as part of public and non-public mandate tenders for institutional clients in Europe.
Asset Liability Management Today – Is it Still ‘Fit for Purpose’?
The target of asset liability management is to align the assets to the liabilities, i.e. managing risks due to mismatches between the assets and liabilities.
Challenges Pension Funds Face due to Low Interest Rates
Risk-averse asset-only investors should go for short duration as risk return is distributed highly asymmetrically.
Is factor-based allocation new?
Factor-based allocation may be theoretically interesting for Swiss pension funds but it is hard to implement in a practical way.
Asset Manager Selection based on historical performance - English Version
Historical performance is a frequently used criterion to select asset managers. Our empirical analysis, however, shows that after hiring an asset manager with such an outstanding performance, the asset manager performs significantly worse in the period after the selection. In some cases, the selected managers even performed significantly worse than a control sample.
Asset Manager Selection under Public Procurement Legislation
"Why has the selection process and transparency become more important in the search of asset managers? What is different in a public procurement process under EU Regulation than in a ´normal´ selection process? How to deal with a very high number of candidates? Our experiences with public tenders in the last 5 years"