Pension portfolio manager for Ryan ALM Advisers. I implement the Ryan ALM Liability Beta Portfolio (LBP) strategy that matches bond cash flows to the "Retired Lives" for defined benefit pension liabilities.Our approach to managing the bond allocation for the retired lives for defined benefit pensions starts with Asset-Liability Management and focuses on the pension’s primary objective of funding benefits when due, in a prudent, low-risk, and cost-efficient manner. This is an Assets vs. Liabilities objective. A pension portfolio vs. a market index objective is an assets vs. assets objective which is the wrong objective. No two Pensions are alike because no two pensions have the same liabilities schedule and funded ratio. Therefore, no two pensions should have the same asset allocation. Yet many plan sponsors measure the performance of their investment portfolio vs. market indexes, rather than versus liabilities and this approach leads them to the wrong asset allocation.Ryan ALM creates a Custom Liability Index (CLI) for every client. We use the client's pension liabilities to create the CLI. We do not use some blend of market indexes because again that would be assets vs. assets. We measure, monitor, and manage the performance of assets versus liabilities for the retired lives. We do not believe that bonds are performance assets. The real value in bonds is in their cash flows because the Future Value of bond cash flows is known in advance and does not change with interest rates. Once benefit payments are matched, they stay matched regardless of changes in interest rates or market volatility.We take the client's existing bond allocation and repurpose it so that it will chronologically and continuously cash flow matches the first 7 to 15 years of retired lives pension benefit payments. This strategy allows risk assets time to perform.Our cash flow matching bond portfolio creates a cash flow bridge across bear markets in stocks and secures pension benefits for the retired lives. Historically 48% to 60% of the S&P 500 returns come from dividends being reinvested. Without a Liability Beta Portfolio, a plan sponsor is forced to interrupt the power of dividend compounding because they are forced to sweep dividends and/or sell alpha-producing assets to make benefit payments for the retired lives. Stocks and other risk assets are great for the "active lives" but every defined benefit pension needs an LBP for their "retired lives".Contact: Steven DeVito SDeVito@RyanALM.com254-242-3572