Schroders recently undertook an independent survey[1] with the key themes of Governance and Investment. Almost 200 pension scheme managers, trustees and financial directors of DC pension schemes based in the UK completed the thought provoking survey.
Governance:
When asked how does your governance budget affect your default investment strategy 73% of participants said that they would not let the governance budget restrict the investment strategy. 15% said that they had no governance budget and they use the provider default and 12% said they only a have limited governance budget so they use passive investments.
Investment:
61% of participants felt that Inflation plus x% was an appropriate return objective for the DC default strategy. 26% referred Benchmark relative return (i.e FTSE World) and 12% chose cash plus x%.
When participants were asked do you feel that LDI techniques used in DB can be used in a DC lifestyle in the future 35% said yes if the trustee understood the solution, 30% said yes that it was important to achieve best outcome and 30% said no as it was too complex.
Stephen Bowles, Head of DC, Schroders said:
“As DC becomes ever more prevalent we are delighted to see that alternative strategies, which are often more appropriate for DC schemes, are being considered and budgetary constraints are not preventing this from happening.”
|