Inherent in the funding model is the assumption that hospitals will generate a level of private health insurance income that will reduce the absolute funding amount required from the Health Service Executive to deliver services.
The nearest equivalent to target-date funds fall into two categories; balanced (or managed) funds and "absolute return" funds.
Multi-asset funds and absolute return funds are in some ways the natural choice if you want exposure to a diversified pool of assets with low volatility.
The disappointments were absolute return funds, or hedge funds, which rose 0.1percentthethe benchmark was a 1.8percentt increase) and the high-yield sector, where Harvard's holdings fell 8.3percentt while the index rose 0.7percentt.
Neither is specifically aimed at the retired but both have an obvious appeal to older people.But even here, balancing risk and return has been difficult; since early 2007, just as the financial crisis was beginning, the average British absolute return fund has barely kept pace with inflation, according to FE Analytics, another research firm.
Last week, Jupiter moved to recruit rising star James Clunie from Scottish Widows to "build assets in total return and equity long and short strategies" – could there soon be a re-jig in the management of the failing absolute returns fund I wonder?
That's the pitch of so-called "absolute return" funds, a breed of mutual fund that is receiving more than its share of marketing dollars as investment management firms seek to capitalize on investors' fears.
He suggested that any new money should be directed into absolute return funds, with his favoured areas being long/short equity funds, which are simpler to understand.
There is no magic formula.' Mark Dampier of financial advisers Hargreaves Lansdown thinks investors should have a range of absolute return funds in their portfolios, as they do for other funds.
"Having a broad spread is sensible – so stock markets, corporate bonds, commercial property, and maybe some absolute return funds," he said.
