April 2025

Economic volatility & tariff turmoil will elevate pension funds desire to diversify

In an increasingly volatile and uncertain financial world where the investment landscape has been exposed to unpredictable shocks, pension funds have been among the most affected by equity market declines and this is expected to further heighten the desire to diversify their asset portfolios. Stock market indices across major economies have fallen in the wake of the introduction of the United States administration’s tariff policy. While tariff amounts have been rolled back in some cases, or put on hold, with countries...

The future of pensions and retail investment in the EU

By Maximilian Bierbaum & Sheenam Singhal In the debate on the future of capital markets in Europe, widening retirement saving and widening retail investment are the potential missing link. But there is a danger that by dealing with the two topics in isolation, EU policymakers will miss the bigger picture. We think this needs to change. Neither pensions nor more retail investment can solve this problem on their own. To really move the dial, we need both – and there...

The role of CEOs in the sustainability of defined benefit pension plans

By Joanne Horton, Paraskevi Vicky Kiosse, Maria Koumenta & Evisa Mitrou The future of defined benefit (DB) pensions is a hotly debated topic in reward management. Drawing on agency and managerial power theories, the conditions under which CEOs can affect their sustainability have been examined. We show that when the CEO is a member of the same DB plan as their employees or when the CEO is both a member and a trustee of the plan, this affects the agency and power...

Over Half of Global Pension Funds Exceed Private Equity Allocation Targets

As private markets continue to gain popularity, global pension funds were, on average, above their median target allocation to private equity in the first quarter of 2025. S&P Global Market Intelligence data revealed that the median target allocation across 298 funds across the global was $306.8 million. Yet, the median actual allocation was $330.3 million, resulting in a $23.5 million overallocation. Of the 298 pension funds analyzed, 174 were found to be overallocated to private equity. In particular, California State Teachers' Retirement...

US. The Increasing Role of Alternatives in Public Pension Plans

Over the period 2001 through 2021, the allocation by public pension plans to alternative assets like private equity, real estate, and hedge funds increased from 14% of risky investments to 39%. However, the overall trend masks a high degree of variability across plans as the alternative-to-risky share for pensions in states like Maine, New Mexico, Indiana, Wyoming and Texas increased by an average of 58 percentage points while it hardly changed for pensions in South Dakota, Nevada, Georgia, Iowa...

Insurers and pensions fill infrastructure lending gap: AllianzGI

The volume of debt being taken up by institutional investors has steadily grown. Insurers and pension providers are plugging the lending gap for infrastructure projects, which commercial banks have been shunning for more than a decade because of a stricter regulatory framework that discourages them from holding longer-tenor loans. “The 2008 global financial crisis significantly changed the infrastructure debt market, which previously relied on commercial banks for about 90% of private infrastructure debt,” Claus Fintzen, chief investment officer for Infrastructure Debt at Allianz...

2025 ‘key year’ for pension schemes considering their endgame strategy

Following recent regulatory and market developments, 2025 represents an important year for schemes reviewing their endgame strategy, Aon has suggested. Withsignificant improvements in funding for defined benefit pension schemes over the last two years, many sponsoring employers and trustee boards have already reconsidered their scheme’s endgame, the firm claimed. However, it said the rest of the year represented an important period for schemes that have yet to commit to a particular approach. “There are several factors at play,” explained Aon associate partner and...

UK. Why pension schemes should not overlook SDR

The FCA’s Sustainability Disclosure Regulations (SDR) might be voluntary for institutional investors, but the new rules have arrived at a crucial moment. Pension schemes are under increasing pressure to invest in a way that supports the transition to a more sustainable economy, while continuing to maximise members’ financial outcomes. Could understanding potential implications of the regime help them navigate the evolving sustainable investment landscape while meeting their fiduciary duties? Let’s first consider the facts. One of the key components of...

US pension funds pay the price for tariff turmoil

PitchBook’s recently released pension fund tracker shows that the top 50 US funds returned an average 7.4% over the past ten years. There is very little dispersion around that figure, with the best performer, the US$205 billion Washington State Investment Board achieving 8.9%, and the worst, the $123 billion North Carolina Retirement Systems, achieving 5.5%. The one-year data, however, looks far better, with an average return of 10.8%. The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the top fund with some $341.4...

Jamaica. Gov’t worker arrested for fraud after pension funds go missing

Detectives assigned to the Constabulary Financial Unit (CFU) of the Counter Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigations Branch (C-TOC) arrested an administrative assistant at a government establishment on Thursday, April 10, following an investigation into alleged fraudulent pension payments. The CFU team visited the establishment at about 10:00 am and apprehended a 49-year-old woman from a Garvey Meade address in St Catherine. The investigation revealed that between March 2017 and May 2018, another government body reportedly made seventeen (17) payments totalling just...