May 2023

U.S. Corporate pension plans stay at or near 100% funded in April

U.S. corporate pension plans remained at or near 100% funded in April after slightly positive returns and slightly falling discount rates kept the numbers from moving too much, according to three new monthly reports. Legal & General Investment Management America estimated the average funding ratio of the typical U.S. corporate pension plan was 100.5% as of April 30, up from 100.3% a month earlier. In its latest monthly Pension Solutions Monitor, LGIMA said the estimated average funding ratio rose in April...

April 2023

Bank of England tells insurers to moderate their push into pensions

The Bank of England warned insurers on Thursday not over extend themselves in grabbing more business from pension schemes eager to offload risks. Charlotte Gerken, executive director for insurance supervision at the Bank, said that in the face of considerable temptation to capture business opportunities, insurers need to exercise caution. Bulk purchase annuities (BPA) are long-term policies from life insurers for company defined benefit, or final salary, pension schemes. Rising interest rates have improved funding levels of pension schemes, making them cheaper...

Shocks to Occupational Pensions and Household Savings

By Francesco Caloia, Mauro Mastrogiacomo & Irene Simonetti This paper studies the saving response of households to shocks in the capital position of their pension fund. Using survey panel data matched to supervisory data of Dutch occupational pension funds for a period that involved three major economic crises, we provide evidence of an increase in savings driven by a worsening of the financial position of pension funds. The identification strategy exploits cross-sectional and time variations in the funding ratios of...

Management of Retirement Funds by Republican vs. Democrat States: Understanding the Differences

By Mustafa O. Caglayan, Edward R. Lawrence & Robinson Reyes-Peña As most of the state pensions in the USA deal with their respective funding crisis, we compare the management approaches undertaken by funds located in the states that are governed by Republicans vis-à-vis funds that are located in states governed by Democrats. We find that pension funds located in states governed by Republicans display a lower funding ratio compared to the pension funds located in states governed by Democrats. The...

Do state and local pension plans really need to be fully funded?

The Center for Retirement Research’s most recent undefined makes a strong case for shifting the focus of fiscal sustainability for state and local pension plans from full funding to stabilizing their pension debt as a share of the economy. While full funding is tidy in the sense that, if the pension were to shut down, assets would be available to pay full benefits, it involves a significant opportunity cost in terms of forgoing public investment in infrastructure and education. To assess...

March 2023

Does Common Ownership Affect Employee Welfare? Evidence from Corporate Pension Funding

By Charles Hsu, Zhiming Ma & Kaitang Zhou This study examines the effect of common institutional ownership on corporate pension funding. We posit that a common owner’s incentive to maximize shareholder value may come at the cost of employee welfare. Consistent with this prediction, we find robust evidence that firms with common ownership demonstrate greater pension underfunding than firms without common ownership. This effect increases with firms’ value-added activities, common owners’ shareholding, duration of ownership, and portfolio size. It decreases...

Pay-as-They-Get-In: Attitudes Towards Migrants and Pension Systems

By Tito Boeri, Matteo Gamalerio, Massimo Morelli & Margherita Negri We study whether a better knowledge of the functioning of pay-as-you-go pension systems and recent demographic trends in the hosting country affects natives' attitudes towards immigration. In two online experiments in Italy and Spain, we randomly treated participants with a video explaining how, in pay-as-you-go pension systems, the payment of current pensions depends on the contributions paid by current workers. The video also explains that the ratio between the number of...

U.S. corporate pension funding increases in February – 3 reports

U.S. corporate pension plans' funding ratios increased in February as falling liability values offset a drop in assets, according to three new monthly reports. Legal & General Investment Management America estimated the average funding ratio of the typical U.S. corporate pension plan was 99.9% as of Feb. 28, up from 99.8% a month earlier. In its latest monthly Pension Solutions Monitor, LGIMA said the estimated average funding ratio rose slightly in February because the increase in discount rates, which caused liability...

February 2023

Total U.K. pension fund surplus, funding ratio decrease slightly in January

The aggregate surplus of U.K. defined benefit funds covered by the PPF 7800 index decreased slightly in January, by 0.6% to £374.4 billion ($463.4 billion). The surplus more than doubled for the year ended Jan. 31, from £146.4 billion, according to a Tuesday update by the Pension Protection Fund, London. The PPF is the lifeboat fund for pension funds of U.K. insolvent companies. The aggregate funding ratio was 134.8% as of Jan. 31, compared with 136.5% as of Dec. 31. The...

UK. New Funding Code could affect how pension schemes are run

UK pension schemes are expecting the Defined Benefit (DB) Funding Code, currently in consultation, to affect the way they are run in the future, a recent poll by Aon has found. At a recent Aon webinar on the funding code consultation, almost 250 attendees were asked how material they thought the new funding regime would be to the way their schemes are run, with 42% of respondents indicating that they thought it would have either a moderate or a significant...