We can visit you to talk to Trustees and/or company executives responsible for the pension funding in a company about the state of the deficit and the role investment management can play in filling the gap.
We can help you understand the deficit calculation and can then offer advice on what kind of investment strategy is likely to make the best contribution to cutting it.
We can help you ask the right questions of your actuarial advisers to ensure the sensible calculation of the balance between assets and liabilities to give a realistic figure.
However the numbers are calculated it is always right for Trustees to aim to grow their fund value so that the assets of the fund are making their contribution to paying the pensions. Even at the best of times a company does not want to have to keep putting extra money into a pension scheme to make up for investment losses. Some actuaries favour the idea that a pension fund can match its liabilities, removing its investment risk, by investing the cash into a series of government bonds. We have agreed with them about the investment wisdom of bonds and cash in 2008, but would point out that it is not possible to match the future payments out of the fund by bonds. Most bonds have a fixed repayment value and a fixed income, whereas pension payments rise in line with wages. In normal conditions pension funds need some assets with growing income to make a bigger contribution to paying future pensions.