Dr Albert Einstein had a famous quote: “In theory, theory, and practice are the same. In practice, they are not.” Since 1900, science has tried discovering insights about (institutional) investing. This course discusses learning points and trends of well-known methods such as asset liability management. The approach is based on experience to indicate where theory and practice do not correspond and that techniques are also subject to fashion.

Organised by the EAA – European Actuarial Academy GmbH.

The web session is particularly insightful for professionals with limited institutional asset management experience but whose work influences the investing policy. There are no technical requirements.

Technical Requirements
Please check with your IT department if your firewall and computer settings support web session participation (the programme Zoom will be used for this online training). Please also make sure that you are joining the web session with a stable internet connection.

The goal of this online web session is awareness of theory versus investment experiences. The course discusses ‘obvious’ shortcomings, like the fact that we trust models more than human experience, we rely on the figures from the past instead of the future, we think in % instead of €, we weigh loss more than profit, and we use High School math to arrive at an efficient portfolio.

Insights and experiences covered are, for example:

• The evolution of ALM
• Unexpected events
• Pitfalls in assumptions and reporting
• Coherent economic eras
• Risk perception
• Implementation glitches

The language of the web session will be English.

Roland van den Brink
Roland has 35 years of experience in the pensions industry, where he held investment-related and senior management positions. He is the founder of TrigNum. Before TrigNum, Roland was a member of the Executive Board of MN, a Dutch pension delivery organisation, and Managing Director of Investments for the Pension Fund Metalektro.
Roland has been active in various international contexts, such as the European Pensions Circle and the European Pension Fund Investment Forum. Roland was President of the Royal Dutch Actuarial Society from 2003 through 2007.
Roland graduated cum laude in 1982 as a mathematician specialising in Chaos theory. Besides his investment qualification (RBA), he has a master’s in actuarial sciences (AAG).