The Seventh International Longevity Risk and Capital Markets Solutions Conference was hosted by the Institute of Investment, Portfolio Management, and Pension Finance in the House of Finance at Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany, and the Pensions Institute at Cass Business School, City University London.
Goethe University, founded in 1914 by prominent Frankfurt citizens, is among the leading institutions of higher education in Europe. With more than 39,000 students in 170 degree programmes offered by 16 faculties, it is one of the largest German universities. The Faculty of Business and Economics is among the best known in Germany. Numerous Nobel laureates from the fields of economics, natural sciences, and medicine, including Reinhard Selten, Paul Ehrlich, Max von Laue, and Max Born, studied or taught at Goethe University.
Established in 2008, the House of Finance (HoF) concentrates Goethe University's key research units and educational programmes in finance, monetary economics, and corporate and financial law under one roof. About 200 researchers with interests in various aspects of finance work next door to each other. The Departments of Finance and Money and Macroeconomics of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration and the Department of Corporate and Financial Law of the Faculty of Law significantly contribute to the academic reputation of the HoF as do well-established institutions like the Center for Financial Studies, the E-Finance Lab, and the Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability. To maintain the high level of research, the Graduate School of Economics, Finance, and Management prepares young scientists to become internationally acknowledged researchers by providing high quality methodological courses. Aside from research excellence the HoF also aims to be a leading European centre for postgraduate education related to the field of finance. The Goethe Business School and the Institute for Law and Finance provide a range of practically oriented executive programs. Altogether the HoF houses about 400 graduate students, the majority with an international background.
The Institute of Investment, Portfolio Management, and Pension Finance was founded in 2000 and is directed by Prof. Dr. Raimond Maurer. The institute's primary areas of research currently include optimal portfolio choice over life-cycle for private households and the integration of products to hedge longevity risk into their strategic asset allocation. In addition to that, the institute masterminded the draft of new regulation governing occupational and private pension plans as well as solvency requirement for the Guaranteed Investment Funds recently introduced in Germany. Several national and international organisations regularly request the institute's advice on the economics of their pension plans.
Pensions Institute
The objectives of the Pensions Institute are:
- to undertake high quality research in all fields related to pensions
- to communicate the results of that research to the academic and practitioner community
- to establish an international network of pensions researchers from a variety of disciplines
- to provide expert independent advice to the pensions industry and government.
We take a fully multidisciplinary approach. For the first time disciplines such as economics, finance, insurance, and actuarial science through to accounting, corporate governance, law and regulation have been brought together in order to enhance strategic thinking, research and teaching in pensions. As the first and only UK academic research centre focused entirely on pensions, the Pensions Institute unites some of the world's leading experts in these fields in order to offer an integrated approach to the complex problems that arise in this field. The Pensions Institute undertakes research in a wide range of fields, including:
- Pension microeconomics
The economics of individual and corporate pension planning, long term savings and retirement decisions. - Pension fund management and performance
The investment management and investment performance of occupational and personal pension schemes. - Pension funding and valuations
The actuarial and insurance issues related to pension schemes, including risk management, asset liability management, funding, scheme design, annuities, and guarantees. - Pension law and regulation
The legal aspects of pension schemes and pension fund management. - Pension accounting, taxation and administration
The operational aspects of running pension schemes. - Marketing
The practice and ethics of selling group and individual pension products. - Macroeconomics of pensions
The implications of aggregate pension savings and the impact of the size and maturity of pension funds on other sectors of the economy (e.g. corporate, public and international sectors). - Public policy
Domestic and EU social policy towards pension provision and other employee benefits in the light of factors such as the Social Chapter of the Maastricht Treaty and the demographic developments in Europe and other countries. Research disseminated by the Pensions Institute may include views on policy but the Pensions Institute itself takes no institutional policy positions.