August 2026
06Aug

US. Large pension funds oppose SEC climate rule rescission

Several large public pension funds filed comments opposing the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) proposal to rescind its 2024 climate-risk disclosure rule. They wrote that eliminating standardized greenhouse gas emissions reporting would increase costs for investors and reduce the quality of information available for investment decisions. The SEC proposed rescinding the rule on May 29, 2026, and the public comment period ended on Aug. 3. SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the rule was "a dramatic overreach of the Commission's statutory...

August 6, 2026
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05Aug

US pensions are better funded on average but high exposure to AI a concern

The Equable Institute’s 2026 survey of the 253 US state and local pension plans shows that their funded ratio has reached 85%, the best since hitting bottom during the 2008 global financial crisis.Their average return on investment was 9.4%, higher than the average target of 6.9%. Set against this strong performance, however, is the US$1.37 trillion in outstanding liabilities, higher than the institute’s $1.27 trillion prediction in January. The figure is “just $210 billion better than 2009’s $1.34 trillion gap...

August 5, 2026
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July 2026
30Jul

U.S. pension risk transfer costs decrease slightly in June: report

U.S. pension plan sponsors’ derisking costs decreased from 99.7 per cent to 99.6 per cent of accounting liabilities in June, according to a new report by Milliman Inc. It found the average annuity purchase cost across all insurers increased from 102.5 per cent to 102.6 per cent during the month. As of June 30, the competitive bidding process was estimated to save plan sponsors about three per cent on pension risk transfer buyout costs. “Competitive buyout costs remained below 100 per...

July 30, 2026
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15Jul

WTW launches mortality model bringing enhanced predictive capabilities to U.S. pension risk transfer market

WTW (NASDAQ: WTW) today announced the launch of a new version of its Geospatial Mortality Model (GMM) intended for the U.S. pension risk transfer (PRT) market that will enable insurers and reinsurers to more accurately price and manage longevity risk. The model – already used by U.S. pension plan sponsors to set longevity assumptions – is now available to insurers to enhance PRT pricing, strengthen asset-liability management, and improve visibility into longevity risk. WTW’s GMM produces smarter, more flexible mortality assumptions...

July 15, 2026
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03Jul

How Rational Is AI Investment Advice? Risk-Return Relevance in Artificial Intelligence (AI) Investments

By Nanying Lin, Oscar Gilbert & Tianxiang Chu Textbook finance theories indicate that investors demand risk premia from risky assets as compensation for risk and for hedging against future unfavorable economic states. We design a comprehensive study to examine whether investment advice generated by artificial intelligence (AI) reflects a coherent risk–return pattern in investment decision-making. We find that AI advises investors to increase stock investments when return increases and reduce stock allocations when stock volatility increases. However, AI ignores the...

July 3, 2026
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June 2026
30Jun

Heatwaves could ruin your pension, according to UK’s Pensions Professionals

Heatwaves are jeopardising retirement as extreme weather events threaten investment returns, the pensions industry has warned. Climate change is becoming a major risk for trillions of pounds in pension savings as increasingly unpredictable weather damages assets, disrupts supply chains and hits productivity, according to a report by the Society of Pension Professionals (SPP). Calum Cooper, the president of the SPP, said: "Put simply, you can't separate the future of pensions from the future of the economy. And you cannot separate the...

June 30, 2026
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26Jun

Insights and Analysis: The AI Revolution

By Pension Trusts Enhanced Data Management and Predictive Analytics Central to the operations of DB pensions is the handling of extensive and diverse data sets. AI can significantly improve the way data is managed through advanced data processing abilities. With machine learning algorithms, there's the potential to dissect decades of pension data. This could help identify underlying trends, enhance the valuation of long-term liabilities and fine-tune outcomes. Conventional actuarial models in Asset Liability Management (ALM) are based on time-tested statistical methods. While...

June 26, 2026
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May 2026
28May

Why de-risking your pension is riskier than you think

People spend a lot of time fretting about how much income to draw from their pension every year. There is another, equally important question, however: what do you invest your money in? On the one hand, you want your savings to grow so they can sustain you through your whole retirement. On the other hand, you don’t want to take on too much risk; volatility can be financially and emotionally draining. Over the long term, equities generally outperform other asset classes,...

May 28, 2026
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28May

UK. Almost two thirds of adults fear running out of money in retirement

Nearly two thirds (63 per cent) of adults are worried about running out of money in retirement, as the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that people are living longer, research by LV= has shown. The ONS data showed that a woman aged 66 can expect, on average, to live to around 90, while a man of the same age is expected to live to approximately 87. The LV= research found that 62 per cent of UK...

May 28, 2026
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22May

Investment Decisions of Defined Benefit Pension Plans

By Zhichuan Frank Li, Jun Wang & Yuqi Zhang This paper examines the determinants of defined benefit (DB) pension plan investment decisions of U.S. corporations with the largest 100 DB plans (Milliman 100 companies). We test two contradicting theories on DB plans. The risk-management theory indicates that firms tend to reduce risk in their pension investments when facing high risk, and the risk-shifting theory predicts the opposite because the funds’ downside risk is hedged by federal government insurance. We find...

May 22, 2026
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