October 2025
02Oct

US. Amid Higher Funded Status, Pension Plans Consider Their Options

The assets of the 100 largest corporate defined benefit pension plans rose by $8 billion in August to $1.29 trillion, and the funded ratio of DB plans increased for the fifth consecutive month to 106.2%, according to data from Milliman. “[The current level of funding] is a significant milestone in the DB space, as the surplus funding gives plan sponsors more options for how to proceed with their plan, whether they want to continue operating their plan on a [liability-driven investment]...

October 2, 2025
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01Oct

Pilots at Germany’s Lufthansa set to strike over pension plans

Pilots at German airline Lufthansa have voted overwhelmingly to go on strike over the company's pension plans, the Cockpit Association said on Tuesday. A spokeswoman for the union said a clear majority of members voted in favour of industrial action, which is set to affect the core Lufthansa Airlines brand and its freight subsidiary Lufthansa Cargo. The strike comes after union representatives and management failed to reach an agreement on pensions for the group's 4,800 pilots. No dates have yet been announced...

October 1, 2025
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September 2025
11Sep

US. Frozen Pensions Are Sitting on Billions. Sponsors Want Access.

With billions of dollars locked in overfunded U.S. corporate pensions, the companies sponsoring these plans are actively exploring ways to unlock that capital (albeit at different rates of speed). Investment consulting giants are seeing strategies that range from funding lump-sum payouts to pursuing full plan terminations. As the average pension plan has crept into overfunded territory, Matt Maloney, a senior partner at Aon Wealth, sees sponsors taking three approaches: holding the surplus as a buffer, funding partial lift-outs or a...

September 11, 2025
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11Sep

UK. Life on a Low Pension – the growing problem of financial insecurity in retirement

The Living Wage Foundation’s Living Pension is an independently calculated savings target, based on the real cost of living, designed to provide an acceptable standard of living in retirement when combined with a full UK State Pension income. It is based on a yearly contribution of 12 per cent of all earnings to an employee’s pension pot, or £2,950 of savings in 2024/25, with at least 7 per cent coming from the employer. Over 80 per cent of workers with a Defined Contribution pension are...

September 11, 2025
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10Sep

Shell outsources pension investment to Goldman in $40bn multi-country deal

Goldman Sachs Asset Management has landed one of the biggest fiduciary management mandates in a multi-country deal with oil giant Shell. The company has agreed to take over the management of approximately $40bn (£29.5bn) of assets, including the main UK defined benefit scheme, the £11.1bn Shell Contributory Pension Plan. The total consists of separate awards from Shell pension entities in six different jurisdictions, including the UK, Germany, and North America, according to a press release from Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM)....

September 10, 2025
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03Sep

Colgate-Palmolive reaches $332-million settlement with employees over pensions

Colgate-Palmolive (CL.N), opens new tab agreed to pay $332 million to settle a long-running class-action lawsuit accusing the consumer products company of making mistakes in calculating its employees' pensions. A preliminary settlement covering 1,177 employees was filed on Friday night in Manhattan federal court and requires a judge's approval. Employees would receive about $232.7 million after lawyers' fees and expenses are deducted. Make sense of the latest ESG trends affecting companies and governments with the Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter. Sign up here. The case had its...

September 3, 2025
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02Sep

US. Big Change To Workplace Investing

Ordinary Americans are about to see the biggest change to retirement investing perhaps since 401(k) plans replaced traditional pension plans. President Trump’s executive order permitting private equity and private credit plans, presumably along with crypto investments, to be included in qualified plans will democratize the investing world—at least in theory. For at least a decade, prominent people like former Blackstone No. 2 executive Hamilton James have made this argument: that since 401(k) investors in their 20s and 30s were locking...

September 2, 2025
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August 2025
21Aug

Treasury Outlines Plan to Pay Retirement Benefits to Former Kenya Railways Staff

National Treasury Cabinet Secretary, John Mbadi, has revealed how the government plans to pay the retirement benefits owed to former Kenya Railways staff. Appearing before the Labour and Social Welfare Committee on Wednesday, August 20, Mbadi revealed that the government had a plan set in place to pay the money owed to the Kenya Railways Staff Retirement Benefit Scheme (KRSRBS). The CS claimed that the delayed payments had been caused by the fact that the scheme did not have any monetary...

August 21, 2025
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20Aug

US. Multiemployer Pensions Reach Historic Full Funding Status

U.S. defined benefit multiemployer pensions have been fully funded for the first time in the history of Millman’s Multiemployer Pension Funding Study, the firm reported today. The funding level improved by three percentage points, up from 97% as of December 31, 2024, to 100% as of June 30, an all-time high since the inception of the study in 2007. Milliman’s data are based on standard actuarial assumptions and data in the latest Form 5500 filings from all U.S. multiemployer plans. The funding shortfall...

August 20, 2025
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June 2025
17Jun

US. Largest Corporate Pension Plans Add $22B in May

U.S. corporate pension funds continued to recover in May, as higher bond yields drove down plan liabilities, and pension assets increased. The funded status of the 100 largest corporate defined benefit pension plans increased by nearly $22 billion in May, according to Milliman. The funded ratio of the DB plans rose to 104.9% from 103%. The increase erased the losses from a rocky first quarter of the year, bringing the funded status above 103.6%, where it started 2025. Pensions assets increased...

June 17, 2025
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