This content is from: Corner Office

The 2014 Pension 40: Caitlin Long

19
Caitlin Long
Head of Corporate Strategies and Pension Solutions
Morgan Stanley
Last year: 12

Even after Caitlin Long, Morgan Stanley’s head of corporate strategies and pension solutions, advised on pension-risk-transfer deals for General Motors Co. and Verizon Communications in 2012, she remained uncertain about what the two transactions meant for corporate America and retirees. Now that she has helped Motorola Solutions and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. pull off similar deals, Long says the “ball is rolling” for U.S. companies transferring pension obligations to insurers. New mortality tables from the Society of Actuaries, which Morgan Stanley estimates raise companies’ liabilities by 4 to 10 percent, was a triggering event. Motorola settled $3 billion in pension obligations for 30,000 employees with Prudential Financial at par, meaning it transferred assets to the insurer without paying a premium; its stock rose 2.5 percent the day of the announcement. “Corporate America is going down this path because of the economics,” says Long, 45, who started her financial career in life insurance equity research at Credit Suisse. “Insurance companies have more scale than any single corporate pension fund, and they can offset longevity risk with their life insurance business. No corporation has that natural hedge.” Though Bristol-Myers didn’t disclose the economics of its $1.4 billion transaction, its plan was overfunded at the end of 2013, and the drugmaker didn’t have to contribute cash to settle the deal. New York–based Long, 45, has a JD and a master’s in public policy from Harvard University. She’s been focusing on pensions since then–Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack offered her the pension position in 2007.

The 2014 Pension 40

1
2
3
4
5
Bruce Rauner
Illinois
John and
Laura Arnold

Laura and John
Arnold Foundation
Randi Weingarten
American Federation of Teachers
Rahm Emanuel
Chicago
David Boies
Boies, Schiller & Flexner
6
7
8
9
10
Randy DeFrehn
National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans
Damon Silvers
AFL-CIO
Laurence Fink
BlackRock
Chris Christie
New Jersey
Robin Diamonte
United Technologies Corp.
11
12
13
14
15
Ted Eliopoulos
California Public Employees’ Retirement System
John Kline
Minnesota
J. Mark Iwry
U.S. Treasury Department
Gina Raimondo
Rhode Island
Phyllis Borzi
U.S. Labor Department
16
17
18
19
20
Orrin Hatch
Utah
Abigail Johnson
Fidelity Investments
Ted Wheeler
Oregon
Caitlin Long
Morgan Stanley
James Hoffa
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
21
22
23
24
25
Amy Kessler
Prudential Financial
Alejandro
García Padilla

Puerto Rico
Christopher Klein
U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Caifornia
Steven Rhodes
Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
Kevin de León
California
26
27
28
29
30
David Draine
Pew Charitable Trusts
Jordan Marks
National Public Pension Coalition
Sam Liccardo
California
Joshua Rauh
Stanford Graduate School of Business
Karen Ferguson and Karen Friedman
Pension Rights Center
31
32
33
34
35
Timothy Blake
Moody’s Investors Service
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
Center for Retirement Initiatives, Georgetown University
Edward (Ted) Siedle
Benchmark Financial Services
Daniel Loeb
Third Point
Judy Mares
Employee Benefits Security Administration, U.S. Labor Department
36
37
38
39
40
Andrew Biggs
American Enterprise Institute
Andy Stern
Columbia University
Kenneth Mehlman
KKR & Co.
Teresa Ghilarducci
New School for Social Research
A. Melissa Moye
U.S. Treasury Department


Related Content