CIEBA–Committee on Investment of Employee Benefit Assets
Who We Are / Our Mission
CIEBA Members are comprised of the country’s leading Chief Investment Officers who manage over $2.5 trillion in defined benefit and defined contribution plan assets.
Our mission is to enhance corporate chief investment officer effectiveness and improve the overall soundness of the private & public retirement system by:
- Offering a unique opportunity to network and leverage best practices with the country’s most experienced group of investment fiduciaries;
- Facilitating content driven exclusively by Members, ensuring that issues covered in meetings and webinars are relevant, timely and actionable;
- Providing a Members-only, vendor-free forum to hear from prominent industry figures and discuss important developing issues, develop effective solutions, and help meet investment and fiduciary responsibilities;
- Providing up-to-date legislative, regulatory, and investment issues affecting both defined benefit and defined contribution plans;
- Serving as an information resource for legislative and regulatory bodies and supporting constructive policy initiatives;
- Educating Members on current industry best practices as well as new investment concepts, trends and strategies; and
- Providing a forum to discuss retirement and investment issues impacting multinational organizations.
CIEBA Members are responsible for managing a significant portion of the assets held in the retirement savings system, providing a robust source of long-term capital that is essential for economic growth. CIEBA is committed to strengthening the retirement system so that it continues as a major, sustainable source of retirement income for millions of Americans.
CIEBA Membership is done only at the organizational level, and all new memberships are granted upon approval of CIEBA leadership. Additional information about joining CIEBA is provided below. Please feel free to contact any of us for additional information on CIEBA:
- Dennis Simmons, Executive Director, CIEBA, [email protected] (484-838-9929)
- Rob Sparling, (fmr.) Dow Inc. CIO and CIEBA Chair
- Neil Roache, Johnson & Johnson CIO and CIEBA Vice Chair
Rev. March 2024
CIEBA Working Group Benefits
Peer Networking on Current Investment and Fiduciary Issues
CIEBA’s meetings are opportunities for candid, off-the-record discussions among peers on the latest investment and fiduciary issues. Examples of topics presented and discussed in the past include:
- Pension de-risking
- PBGC premiums levels
- Protecting the Single Employer PBGC Trust
- International regulatory trends
- “Rothification”
- The evolving regulation on fiduciary responsibilities
- Service provider expenses
- Financial Wellness Education for DC Plan Participants
- Lifetime Income in DC
- Litigation trends in DC
- The role of alternatives in DC & DB Plans
- Asset Benchmarking
- Plan sponsor highlights
- Developments in international plan design
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- Optimize the coexistence between DB and DC plans
- DB trends
- Modernizing target date solutions
- Alternative beta for expanding the investor’s toolkit
- Liability-Driven Investing
- Investment committee governance
- Risk management tools
- Marketplace Lending
- Cybersecurity
- Benchmarking Illiquid Assets
- Best practices in hiring and monitoring managers and custodians
- Managing Downgraded Assets
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Networking with Industry Leaders
Because of the influence of CIEBA’s members, meetings regularly include some of the most influential members of the finance and government policy communities, recently including:
- Jamie Dimon (Chairman & CEO, JPMorgan Chase Company)
- David Solomon (Chairman & CEO of Goldman Sachs)
- Tim Buckley (Chairman & CEO of Vanguard)
- Steve Case (founder of AOL & CEO of Revolution LLC),
- Mary Callahan Erdoes (CEO of J.P. Morgan Asset Management),
- David Rubenstein (co-founder of The Carlyle Group),
- Larry Fink (Chairman and CEO of BlackRock),
- Bill McNabb (Chairman and former CEO of Vanguard),
- Kunal Kapoor (CEO of Morningstar),
- Emmanuel Roman (CEO of PIMCO),
- Mellody Hobson (President of Ariel Investments),
- Howard Marks (Chairman of Oaktree Capital Management), and
- Elected officials and heads of relevant regulatory agencies.
- Marc Lasry (co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Avenue Capital Group)
- Tony Ressler (co-founded Apollo Global Management in 1990, and Ares Management in 1997)
- Dennis Lockhart (14th President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, serving from March 1, 2007, through February 28, 2017)
Representation in Washington
With some of the world’s most experienced investment experts as Members, CIEBA is uniquely positioned to lead retirement investment policy discussions. CIEBA has testified before Congress and regulatory agencies on various issues, including:
- Maintaining the tax-advantaged status of retirement plans
- Requesting relief from the nondiscrimination rules for soft frozen single-employer DB plans
- Relieving the burden of PBGC premium increases on DB plans
- Supporting the fiduciary safe harbor for participant-directed investments of DC plans
- Supporting the safe harbor for lifetime income strategies in DC plans
- Enhancing access to expert investment advice and education
- Encouraging a more flexible exemption process in the prohibited transaction area
- Supporting reform to raise the bar for standards on all investment providers
Industry Trends
Through regular timely surveys, CIEBA provides exclusive information on trends within the industry and issues Members are currently addressing. These include:
- The Annual Membership Profile Survey, which highlights DB and DC trends in asset allocation, equity turnover, indexation, and internal and external management (all CIEBA Members complete this annual survey as a condition for Membership, and the results are available only for CIEBA Members)
- Surveys of discount rates and return on assets
- Member-driven ad hoc surveys on current issues (for example, investment team governance & structure), enabling Members to have unique access to real-time solutions and information from peers
Joining CIEBA—CIEBA Working Group Membership
Unique opportunity to network with peers and industry leaders
CIEBA Working Group Members gather for four (4) meetings per year where Members interact with their peers and some of the most influential investment experts and policy makers in the country.
Annual Membership Profile, Webinars, Member Surveys and other benefits
In addition to participating in quarterly meetings, CIEBA Working Group Members receive the results of our Annual Membership Profile Survey (participation in this survey is mandatory for all Members), attend Members-only webinars and have access to submit and participate in member-authored ad hoc surveys. Members use these ad hoc surveys to get timely peer-to-peer feedback on important, time-sensitive issues.
Working Group Membership Dues are $6,495/year. Members are also asked to pay a meeting fee to cover the costs of each meeting they attend. CIEBA also offers a Regular Membership level with more limited involvement and access only to one CIEBA Member Meeting per year, generally the CIEBA Member Annual Meeting. Please contact CIEBA leadership for more details on Regular Membership.
Given that the benefits of CIEBA Membership are designed and intended to help CIOs meet their obligations to their plans, CIEBA Membership and meeting fees may be expenses payable by plan assets.1
Click here to see further instructions on how to join. For information on CIEBA membership, please contact Gigi Combe by email at [email protected].
1 This is an issue CIEBA encourages Members to discuss with their own counsel.
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