Pension Security and Capital Market Solutions - Distinguished Visiting Speaker

Title: Pension Security and Capital Market Solutions (Academic Seminar)
Speaker: Arun Muralidhar | Co-Founder of Mcube Investment Technologies LLC | Adjunct Professor of Finance at Georgetown University.
Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2026
Time: 11:00 AM
Room: LH4114 (LSBE Dean's Boardroom) & Hybrid

Zoom Meeting Link: https://wilfrid-laurier.zoom.us/j/99519890070?pwd=vTEjj5sNlxHgBTNUNsai4zmq6MluBx.1

SUMMARY

This talk examines how financial innovation in household finance can strengthen pension security and improve capital market design. The paper highlights Brazil’s introduction of two novel government securities in 2023—a retirement bond (RendA+) and an education bond (Educa+)—designed to deliver goal-specific real cash flows rather than traditional lump-sum wealth outcomes. These instruments represent a new class of goal-replicating assets (GADs) that align financial products directly with household objectives such as retirement income or education funding (and are sharia-compliant). Building on this innovation, the paper develops a new asset-pricing framework in which heterogeneous investors with different goals use these goal-linked assets alongside a traditional risk-free asset to determine equilibrium prices for risky assets. This goal-based, relative-wealth perspective contrasts with conventional CAPM-based models focused on absolute wealth maximization. The framework suggests that appropriately designed capital market instruments can simultaneously improve household financial security, enhance retirement outcomes, and provide new insights into asset pricing and portfolio construction (and even macroeconomic policy).

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Arun Muralidhar is Co-Founder of Mcube Investment Technologies LLC, Client CIO of AlphaEngine Global Investment Solutions and Adjunct Professor of Finance at Georgetown University. He holds a PhD in Economics from MIT Sloan School and a BA from Wabash College. At MIT he conducted his doctoral research under the Nobel Laureates Franco Modigliani and Robert C. Merton. Arun designed two award-winning bond innovations for retirement and a child’s education that Brazil issued in 2023 (in collaboration with Bob Merton). Arun has coauthored papers and books on pension reform with Bob Merton, and the book Rethinking Pension Reform (2004), with Franco Modigliani.

Arun has extensively worked and won numerous awards for papers in asset allocation & pricing. and portfolio& currency management. His books include “Fifty States of Grey: An Innovative Approach to the DC Retirement Crisis,” (2018), “A Nobel Retirement: 3 Nobels, 3 Pillars and 3 Facets of Investments” (2024), "A SMART Approach to Portfolio Management" (2011), "Innovations in Pension Fund Management" (2001), “Investment Theory and Practice – It’s All ‘Relative” (2024), and “GBI – Gimme Better Instruments or Goals-based Investing” (2025).