Half of pension plan sponsors are using liability-driven investing strategies in their plans, down just four percentage points from 2009, according to an SEI Global Quick Poll released Wednesday. While 50% of sponsors are using LDI today, that's up from just 20% in 2007.
Liability-driven investing, according to poll respondents, means creating a portfolio "designed to be risk managed with respect to liabilities." However, 30% of respondents defined LDI as matching the duration of assets to the duration of liabilities.
Thirty-eight percent of respondents in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States said the most popular benchmark for measuring success in their pension plans was "improved funded status." The second most popular benchmark for success was minimizing or controlling contributions, followed by absolute returns.
Over two-thirds of respondents made asset allocation changes to their pension plans in the past year; 51% said the changes were due to consultant recommendations, and 28% said they were to control expenses.
