Towers Watson

Total assets of the world’s largest 300 pension funds fell by over 3% in 2015 (compared to growth of over 3% in 2014) to a sum of US$14.8 trillion according to Pensions & Investments and Willis Towers Watson research...

The research - which includes data on a diverse range of institutional investor types - shows that pension fund assets represent a third (34%) of the top 100 alternative managers’ assets, followed by wealth managers (19%), insurance companies (10%), sovereign wealth funds (6%), banks (2%), funds of funds (2%) and endowments & foundations (2%).

Willis Towers Watson’s institutional investment clients globally allocated $10bn, via 175 selections, to diversifying investment strategies in 2015. Within this grouping, liquid alternatives attracted the most interest with over $8.1bn, of which approximately half is in smart beta and where $1.9bn is in secure income strategies.

Global institutional pension fund assets in the 16 major markets grew by over 6% during 2014 (compared to around 10% in 2013) to reach a new high of US$36 trillion, according to Towers Watson’s Global Pension Assets Study released today.

The pension funded status of the nation’s largest corporate sponsors reversed direction in 2014, dropping nine percentage points as falling interest rates (which increased liabilities) and the impact of new mortality tables were only partially offset by strong returns on pension plan assets, according to a new analysis by global professional services company Towers Watson.