DB Pensions - Articles & White Papers

It’s set to be another busy year for DB schemes, sponsors and advisers. Read our 2024 guide to the UK Pensions Landscape for details about pension reforms, sustainability, regulations, pooling and more.

In this piece, we discuss key considerations for retirement plan sponsors in 2024, including where markets may be headed, how sponsors can address declining retirement confidence, trends in regulation, legislation and litigation, and the road forward for defined benefit plans.

In this publication, we offer our views on: pooling by 2025, local investment opportunities, private equity opportunities, taskforce on nature-related financial disclosures, higher yields, what these mean for the LGPS, and inflation hedging using derivatives.

Enthusiasm seems to be growing to reopen—or at least to stop closing and freezing—defined benefit retirement plans. The most dramatic manifestation of this enthusiasm for reopening plans has been IBM’s announcement to shift its 401(k) match to an automatic contribution to the cash balance component of its previously frozen…

As the Canadian economy appears certain to transition to a lower interest-rate environment, our Multi-Asset Solutions Team examines how liability-driven investing can help defined benefit plans to preserve pension fund health.

In this outlook we set out key themes for the year ahead, including renewed focus on credit allocations, hedging, falling longevity and equity derivative strategy.

“CalSTRS to Weigh New Opportunistic Sleeve, Eliminates 55% Limit on Private Assets”. So goes the headline of a recent article. Upon reading the article, I decided to explore the merit of CalSTRS’s proposed strategic shift, which is likely to place even greater emphasis on controversial alternative asset types.

In this edition of the Pension Fund Letter, we continue our discussions on this topic, looking at what it means for different types of pension funds and their KPIs, as well as possible ways of addressing the issue.

For a pensions market that is all but closed to new members, defined benefit (DB) pension schemes and perhaps primarily the Government, are not resting on their laurels. Mansion House reforms and a gently encouraged move into productive assets, increasing numbers of bulk annuity deals, and consolidation, all set against the…

Published in December 2023, 'Pensions at a Glance' highlights the pension reforms undertaken by OECD countries over the last two years. It includes a special chapter focusing on pension provisions for hazardous or arduous work. It describes existing rules, characterises recent policy trends and assesses the design and…

In this article, First Eagle discusses how DB sponsors think about retirement savings and what 401(k) plan sponsors can (and can’t) learn from DB practice.

DB schemes are maturing, but the endgame is in a fascinating state of flux. Here's how we're ensuring our quantitative frameworks remain flexible as the regulatory backdrop shifts.

With deeper representation across the long duration spectrum, lower historical default rates and higher yields relative to comparable quality corporate bonds, taxable municipal bonds can complement and potentially enhance LDI portfolios.

With scheme funding levels rising, we consider how trustees might best go about setting a target interest rate sensitivity for their liabilities on a buyout basis.

The spread of gilts over swaps rose steadily over 2023, as the market made room for supply. The first few months of 2024 have seen a pause in this dynamic.

With many pension funds likely to adopt new longevity assumptions over the coming months, what are the implications for DB schemes and markets?

This report analyses the assets under management and the fund flows in the European Fund industry over the course of the year 2023 in an attempt to identify underlying trends and developments.

Global Pension Finance Watch, published quarterly, reviews how capital market performance affects defined benefit pension plan financing in major retirement markets worldwide, with a focus on linked asset/liability results. We cover defined benefit pension plans in Brazil, Canada, the Eurozone, Japan, Switzerland, the U.K.…

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Global investment-grade bonds can potentially complement traditional liability-driven investment (LDI) strategies, bringing the potential for attractive risk-adjusted returns while still maintaining critical liability hedging characteristics.