Defined Benefit (DB) pension schemes have prevalence in certain countries, most notably the UK. This is also the case for Ireland. Underfunding of DB pension schemes is prevalent throughout the Western world, and no more so than Ireland. This paper examines underfunding of DB schemes in Ireland...

Many, if not most, individuals cannot be regarded as 'intelligent consumers' when it comes to understanding and assessing different investment strategies for their defined contribution pension plans. This gives very little incentive to plan providers to improve the design of their pension plans....

This paper discusses the financial risks faced by the UK Pension Protection Fund (PPF) and what, if anything, it can do about them. It draws lessons from the regulatory regimes under which other financial institutions, such as banks and insurance companies, operate and asks why pension funds are...

We propose a general framework that can be used to analyse the mortality experience of a large portfolio of lives. The objective of the framework is to provide a firm evidence base to support the setting of future mortality assumptions for the portfolio as a whole or subgroup-by-subgroup. The...

This paper analyses the international equity holdings of a large panel of UK pension funds. We find considerable evidence of market timing activity, as illustrated by the funds' decision to scale back investments in the US stock market during the 1990s. To explain this, we jointly model...

Supporters of collective defined contribution (CDC) pension schemes claim that they can produce higher and more stable incomes than individual defined contribution (IDC) pension schemes. Broadly speaking, there are two types of CDC scheme in existence: one that is a form of DB replacement and...

For many pension schemes, a shortage of data limits their ability to use sophisticated stochastic mortality models to assess and manage their longevity risk. In this study, we develop a relative model for mortality, which compares the evolution of mortality rates in a sub-population with that...

The past few decades have seen a major shift from centralized to decentralized investment management by pension fund sponsors, despite the increased coordination problems that this brings. Using a unique, proprietary dataset of pension sponsors and managers, we identify two secular...

A single valuation basis (using market values) now dominates the valuation of pension scheme assets and has replaced the previously dominant actuarial and accounting bases.The same cannot be said for pension scheme liabilities. There are three different valuation bases for liabilities currently...

The objective of the research was to analyse and evaluate the role of real estate in the UK's defined contribution (DC) pensions market in relation to auto-enrollment – the new system of pension scheme provision for private sector employees in the UK, which is being phased in by all employers...