All Pensions articles
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White papersUnlocked Potential: Enhancing DC Outcomes With Private Equity
As product innovations and regulation have removed barriers to entry, we assess the potential benefits for DC schemes of investing into private equity.
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White papersPrivate debt for DC pensions: The multi-sector opportunity
As the search for better retirement outcomes for the 28 million members of the UK’s defined contribution (DC) pension schemes continues, where are the opportunities for DC investors in private debt and how can they be harnessed?
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White papersResponsible Investment Pension Fund Outlook
The landscape of responsible investment has rapidly evolved in recent years, influenced by stricter regulatory changes, shifting market dynamics, and an increased emphasis on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors.
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White papersPension Funds Letter 23 - Bridging the gaps to pension and climate resilience
Warnings over a looming pension crisis occur with increasing regularity. Global populations are not only ageing, they are also shrinking in many regions. The number of workers is declining in Europe and parts of Asia, living costs are rising and wages are stagnating. Set against a backdrop of extraordinary global uncertainty, this demographic transition is putting pressure on retirement systems around the globe.
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White papersEurozone Pension Systems: a health check
Post-war Second World War pension funds were developed on the basis of two different logics: the Bismarckian (defined contributions) in Germany and the Beveridgean system (defined benefits) in England. Today, there are hybrids of these systems but all have established minimum pension levels or social minimums.
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White papersLDI Market Update – March 2025, the new Dutch pension system and its expected market implications
The Dutch pension landscape will face a major historic change in the coming years, with approximately EUR 1800 billion of assets being transitioned from a Defined Benefit pension system to a Collective Defined Contribution pension system. The transition has consequences for the way Dutch pension funds invest – in particular their interest rate hedging profile will look different.
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White papersRun-on vs buy-out? Key considerations for defined benefit pensions
UK defined benefit pension schemes that have found themselves in a surplus since mid-2022 are considering alternative options over the traditional buy-out with insurers. We explore the key factors pension schemes should consider in their decision making process.
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White papersDoes Tax Deductibility Increase Retirement Saving? Lessons from a French Natural Experiment
This paper presents new evidence on how employees respond to tax incentives for retirement saving. Using administrative data from a large retirement plan administrator in France, we examine the voluntary saving choices of approximately 1.4 million workers before and after the implementation of the 2019 Loi Pacte, a reform that introduced tax-deductible voluntary contributions into employer-sponsored retirement plans.
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White papersOvercoming barriers to retirement savings: behavioural factors and existing schemes
Under-saving for retirement is a major issue for many economies. Benartzi and Thaler (2013) have long diagnosed a ‘retirement savings crisis’. In the US, according to the National Retirement Risk Index, 39% of working-age households will not be able to maintain their standard of living in retirement.
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PodcastOuterblue Conversations – Seeking returns in a disruptive era? Analysis of the 2025 pension survey
Each year, Amundi and CREATE interview pension plans to highlight topics shaping the pension ecosystem. As pension investors transition to a new regime, this year, one question is at the top of everyone’s minds: where will the returns come from? The 2024 survey takes a closer look at two of the potential answers in this search for good risk-adjusted returns: private markets and Asian emerging markets.
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White papersKeep an eye on your tech stocks
Investors have a decent record in ignoring warning signs. In the wake of any big market sell-off, legions of sages have tended to pop up and lament, after the fact, that “the warning signs were there.” Yet the lead-up to each of these reverses has usually been a period of carefree investor exuberance. In other words, if the signs really were there, very few people were paying attention.
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White papersGEMs ESG Materiality, H2 2024: Analysing the cost of climate change
In the latest issue, we probe the risks that climate change potentially represents to emerging market companies. We provide a further update on South Korea’s ‘Corporate Value-Up Programme’, and also discuss our broader voting and engagement activity.
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White papers10 Things Pension Schemes Should Know about Buy-Out
The UK’s defined-benefit pension schemes are financially stronger than they have been in years. Many sponsors and trustees are taking this opportunity to revisit their endgame. Should they transfer their obligations to an insurer in a buy-out transaction, or is the scheme better placed to run on, managing its own obligations?
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White papersDC and Bonds: The End of the Affair…and a New Beginning
Bonds’ traditional role in pension allocations is over. But they have a new purpose in a lifetime income strategy.
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White papersThe Patchwork of Eurozone Pension Systems and Budget Constraints
The issue of pension systems in Eurozone countries is significant because pension outlays represent a substantial portion of GDP. And an ageing population increases financing needs. At the same time, country deficits – and consequently debt – have deepened during the Covid period, including through higher interest rates.
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White papersPensions find new sources of long-term cash flows
An upside of higher rates for pension schemes is a reduction in the value of future liabilities. Many defined benefit (DB) pensions in Europe are taking advantage of this to derisk portfolios by locking-in higher-yielding, public investment grade fixed income assets, according to Nuveen’s 2024 EQuilibrium survey. This is freeing them up to explore more private investments and, in some instances, these investments are also playing into schemes’ environmental and social objectives.
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White papersPrivate markets poised to benefit from new strategic landscape
Asset managers are facing growing demand from institutional investors to develop sophisticated private market strategies that balance high long-term risk-adjusted target returns, added diversification benefits, and fundamental value creation.
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White papersPensions investment outlook 2025: US policy uncertainty clouds road ahead
The coming year will likely be characterised by three main drivers: the US’s politically driven polices; structural economic weaknesses and political uncertainty in Europe; and China’s restructuring of its troubled property market.
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White papersConsolidate with caution – Too much focus on scale could come at the expense of innovation
Last month, in an attempt to boost the UK’s growth trajectory, Rachel Reeves unveiled what she claimed was the “biggest pension reform in decades”. She reckons the UK has been regulating for risk, but not regulating for growth – a view many in the industry would agree with.
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White papersWhere will returns come from? Pensions in a new economic regime
Where will returns come from? Pensions in a new economic regime
