Congratulations to Bill Ryan, Partner & Head of Defined Contribution Solutions at NEPC, on being named to CIO’s 2023 Knowledge Brokers list. Read an excerpt from his Q&A session with CIO below, or view the full interview on Chief Investment Officer’s site here.
As a Partner at NEPC, an independent investment consultant, private wealth adviser, and outsourced chief investment officer provider, Bill Ryan leads the firm’s Defined Contribution (DC) Practice as the Head of DC Solutions. His role is to oversee more than 140 DC clients NEPC serves. Ryan helps plan sponsors address today’s increasingly complicated challenges, from governance model support and operational risk management, to using plan data more effectively to inform plan design.
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CIO: What do you think will be the biggest innovation in your industry in the next 10 years?
Ryan: “Like so many industries, generative artificial intelligence (GAI) will transform our industry in the years to come. While the technology has existed for some time, tools like Chat GPT are now being embraced to help streamline day-to-day processes and allow for more brainstorming and collaboration on strategic problem-solving.
For example, the use of GAI within DC plan investment solutions will allow for the more traditional static implementation of asset allocation via a target-date fund to become dynamic and truly personalized through its self-learning. This will in turn provide new actionable communication channels between consultants and plan sponsors and, potentially allowing them to address nuances around a participant’s investment objectives directly. In my view, it will be crucial to outline exactly how these tools can and should be used, particularly given the heavy regulation of our industry.”
CIO: What investments (specific securities or sectors) look good to you now? And why?
Ryan: “Looking at the current market and factoring in the Federal Reserve continuing to hike interest rates, we’re working with clients to focus on opportunistic asset classes that have been heavily affected by changes in interest rates, such as fixed income and insurance products. After more than a decade of discount rates being nonexistent, we are seeing the value of income-yielding investments as well as fixed annuities increasing as participants can now get a true future value for a dollar invested today, compared to the past 10 years when rates were nearly zero.”