Case Studies

Pearl Group Staff Pension Scheme has increased its allocation to corporate bonds and reduced investment in growth assets to lower its exposure to fluctuations in the market.  

London and Quadrant Housing Trust has segmented its defined contribution scheme membership in an innovative review of whether its investment strategy and communication will create good member outcomes.

Cambridgeshire Pension Fund outperformed in 2012/2013 after a restructure of its fixed income investments saw it buy European loans to increase yield and protect itself against rising interest rates.

South Yorkshire Pension Authority has increased its allocation to equities over the past three years, concluding that stock selection within its equity portfolios helped it produce positive returns against the benchmark.

The PPF's Martin Clarke explains how its hedging strategy helped the scheme's assets to outperform liabilities by more than 4 per cent in the year to March 2013, in this edition of Policymakers and Decision-makers (5:09).

Essex County Council opted for a transitional delay to spread costs and reduce work ahead of its employers’ staging date, as a substantial proportion of workers were not scheme members.

Bedfordshire Pension Fund has decided to offer academies “observer” status on its pension committee, with the schools representing a growing and increasingly scrutinised proportion of local authority scheme membership.

West Sussex Pension Fund has decided to reduce over time its private equity allocation, concluding its performance does not justify its liquidity risk and the “luck” involved in manager selection.

Selex Pension Scheme has launched a series of four blended funds as part of an overhaul of its defined contribution default investment options, to smooth out volatility for its members.

Heineken’s scheme governance committee has produced a statement of investment principles to improve transparency for members, despite there being no legal requirement for contract-based defined contribution plans to do so.