February 2026

Navigating the DB Pension Endgame: Lessons from Global Leaders

Aging populations and falling birth rates are placing mounting pressure on pension systems worldwide. In Europe alone, the dependency ratio is expected to climb sharply over the next two decades, threatening retirement adequacy and prompting governments to raise pension ages and reduce benefits. At the same time, global retirement systems are transitioning toward defined contribution pension strategies, leaving defined benefit (DB) plans to increasingly operate as legacy arrangements. Regulatory reforms are also sweeping across markets, often centralizing governance, accelerating consolidation...

Vast majority of DB members confident about their pension

Confidence among defined benefit (DB) members is high, with 86% saying they feel confident about their pension, trust it is secure, understand how it works and expect it to deliver without surprises, latest research from Standard Life reveals. The insurer's DB Member Insights Report 2026 – based on a survey of 1,000 DB members,  commissioned by Standard Life and conducted by Censuswide in October – found this confidence was largely due to trust in the system rather than deep knowledge of the...

January 2026

Pension Economics

By Torben M Andersen A coherent introduction to the economics of pensions is provided to give the reader insights in the many objectives addressed by pension systems and the design possibilities available. The text offers an in-depth overview of the literature and its main insights and conclusions with sufficient rigor to understand the basic mechanisms, but without excessive technical details, focusing on the intuition and implications of the results. The pros and cons of different pension schemes are discussed from...

November 2025

Italy, France and Belgium carry most worrying debts in EU, top bank says

Italy, France and Belgium have the most concerning debt-sustainability outlooks in the EU, according to the latest study published by the National Bank of Belgium. The analysis published today found that Italy, France and Belgium are the most fragile economies in Europe when it comes to government debt. They already carry some of the heaviest debt loads in the European Union, and their problems are made worse by rapid population ageing and rising pension costs. Koen De Leus, chief economist at BNP...

Vanguard Introduces How America Retires, Analyzing America’s Retirement Revolution

Vanguard introduces the inaugural How America Retires report, a companion to How America Saves, that analyzes Vanguard retirement plan data and industry trends, uncovering insights into the behaviors, decisions, and challenges faced by Americans in retirement. As defined contribution (DC) plans continue to dominate the retirement landscape, How America Retires explores income-generation strategies in retirement and the critical role 401(k) plan design plays in shaping retiree outcomes. With more than four million Americans turning 65 this year1 and significant progress...

U.S. pension giants exposed to risky assets: Fitch

U.S. defined benefit (DB) pension plans are increasingly exposed to private credit and other risky alternative assets that could lead to funding troubles that ultimately strain government finances too, says Fitch Ratings. In a report issued Monday, the rating agency said that in the wake of the global financial crisis, sponsors of public DB pensions took a variety of steps to improve the their plans’ solvency, such as increasing contribution rates, reducing benefits to new employees and adopting more conservative...

October 2025

UK. DB pension surpluses continue to stand at record levels, up £48bn year-on-year in September

XPS Group estimates UK DB pension schemes maintained a £222bn aggregate surplus against long-term funding targets, up £2bn in September 2025 and £48bn year-on-year. Aggregate scheme assets saw a small rise in September 2025, as matching assets rose in value as bond yields decreased. Growth assets such as global equities also displayed positive performance. Aggregate scheme liabilities also increased, driven by a slight reduction in gilt yields. New analysis from XPS Group shows UK pension schemes continued to enjoy...

September 2025

Ndc Benchmarking and Actuarial Fairness in Spain’s Db Pensions: Retirement, Disability, and Survivor Reversibility

By Carlos Vidal-Meliá We apply an actuarially grounded Notional Defined Contribution (NDC) counterfactual to benchmark Spain’s pay‑as‑you‑go Defined Benefit (DB) pensions using administrative microdata (MCVL, 2015–2023). From observed contribution histories we reconstruct notional capital, price DB liabilities with contingency‑, gender‑ and income‑stratified mortality—adding severity‑ and onset‑adjusted tables for disability—and quantify actuarial fairness via money’s‑worth ratios (MWR), real internal rates of return (IRR), and notional–cost gaps. A unified treatment of retirement, disability, and survivor reversibility employs joint‑life valuation.Results show pervasive actuarial...

Economic and Distributional Effects of Demographic Shifts: Evaluating Pay-as-You-Go and Fully Funded Pension Schemes Based on the Greek Experience

By Zois Gerasimos Katsimigas, Christos Papatheodorou This paper examines economic and distributional consequences of demographic shifts by comparing pay-as-you-go (PAYG) and fully funded (FF) pension schemes in a macroeconomic framework, using Greece as a case study. Facing acute ageing and population decline, Greece provides a unique context to assess the performance of these schemes. We develop a post-Keynesian stock-flow consistent (SFC) model calibrated to the Greek economy to simulate the macroeconomic and distributional outcomes of both schemes under projected demographic...

August 2025

Economic and Distributional Effects of Demographic Shifts: Evaluating Pay-as-You-Go and Fully Funded Pension Schemes Based on the Greek Experience

By Zois Gerasimos Katsimigas & Christos Papatheodorou This paper examines economic and distributional consequences of demographic shifts by comparing pay-as-you-go (PAYG) and fully funded (FF) pension schemes in a macroeconomic framework, using Greece as a case study. Facing acute ageing and population decline, Greece provides a unique context to assess the performance of these schemes. We develop a post-Keynesian stock-flow consistent (SFC) model calibrated to the Greek economy to simulate the macroeconomic and distributional outcomes of both schemes under projected...