The global poll, conducted by SEI’s Pension Management Research Panel, included 100 pension executives from the US, Canada, the Netherlands, and the UK and has registered several significant changes in comparison with past years.
Explaining the new trend, Jonathan Waite, director of Investment Management Advice and Chief Actuary of SEI’s Institutional Group, said: "The ongoing funded status volatility of pensions has placed increased pressure on organizations to make investment decisions that match the assets to the plan’s liabilities."
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"The volatility has also created a significant need for active LDI and de-risking strategies that can regularly monitor market changes and key trigger points."
In 2011, the strategy that investors adopt while setting their portfolios involves taking a holistic perspective on the pension plan and looking at liabilities as well as assets.
According to the poll, there is a trend of placing emphasis on the plans’ liabilities and moving away from the historical focus on absolute return when managing pension investments.
The poll also highlights that the top goal of LDI continues to be "controlling the volatility of funded status," as has been the case consistently in prior years. The primary benchmark of successful pension management has changed significantly over the last four years to "improved funded status" in 2011 from "absolute return of portfolio" in 2007.
