Inflation Assumptions Under the Spotlight

Getting estimates of inflation wrong can have disastrous effects on your deficit levels, but which pension funds were most off target in the last decade?

(October 4, 2013) – The average US public pension fund got its estimates of inflation levels wrong by a differential of 1.13 percentage points between 2001 and 2008, a white paper has shown.

The worst-calculated assumptions took place in 2002, when the average inflation assumption was 2.24% out.

Examples of plans that have used assumptions on the upper end of the sample include: the Arizona Public Safety Personnel Retirement System (5% to 5.5% for all of the years analyzed); Duluth Teachers Retirement Fund (4.5% to 5% for all of the years analyzed); and the Alabama Employees’ Retirement System (4.5% for all of the years analysed).

At the other end of the scale, examples of plans that have used assumptions on the lower end of the sample include: State Universities Retirement System of Illinois (1.25% to 1.5% for all of the years analysed); New York City Employees Retirement System (2.5% for all of the years analyzed); and California Public Employees’ Retirement System (3% to 3.5% for all of the years analysed).

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Pension funds outside of the US fared a little better. Ontario Pension Board in Canada had an average assumed inflation rate of 2.54% between 2002-2011, compared to the actual average inflation in Canada of 2.07%.

In Ireland, public service pensions in the are administered by the National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF), which built in an annual inflation assumption benchmark of 2.1%, according to its 2011 Annual Report and Financial Statements.

Between 2001 and 2011, the World Bank reported that the average inflation in Ireland for this time period was 2.29%, or about a fifth of a percentage point above the rate assumed by NPRF.

Now the challenge is to try and predict where inflation will head next, the paper said.

“Several central banks and the IMF project longer-term inflation to be approximately 2% in their forecasts. Going forward, it will be important to see how close these forecasts match actual inflation and, relatedly, how close actual inflation aligns with the assumptions used by pension plans in developed nations,” the paper continued.

“Also, more particularly, for developed countries experiencing increased inflationary pressures for the first time in decades, such as the UK over the past three years, it will be important to study the adverse impacts on the purchasing power of salaries and pension benefits and how public retirement schemes can adjust to such circumstances.”

The full paper, written by Alex Brown, M. Nicolas Firzli, and Joshua M. Franzel, can be read here.

Related Content: Why We’ve Not Seen the Back of QE (and Why We’re Not in Recovery Mode) and The Inflation Hedge Myth

US Corporate Pension Plans Reach 91% Funded Status

Rising equities contributed to a better aggregate US pension funding status in September, according to BNY Mellon.

(October 3, 2013) — The funded status of typical US corporate pension plans rose by 2.9 percentage points to 91% in September, owing to rising equities in US and international markets, according to BNY Mellon Investment Strategy & Solutions Group (ISSG).

This is the first time their funded status has exceeded 90% since June 2011.

BNY Mellon also reported that US public pension plans, endowments, and foundations surpassed their expected returns in September.

The rise in equities may be due to increasing investor confidence, according to Mark Bogar, managing director at the Boston Company Asset Management, an equities investment boutique.

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“We’ve seen more widespread optimism as economic conditions, especially in continental Europe and Japan, have bottomed and begun to improve,” Bogar said.

BNY Mellon found the climb in equities helped US corporate pension plans see a 3.1% increase in assets in September.

“Rising above a funded status level of 90% is important to many corporate pension plans as they are more likely to implement strategies that can lower a plan’s exposure to market volatility,” said Jeffrey Saef, managing director of BNY Mellon Investment Management and head of the ISSG. “The recent equity market returns are helping corporations outperform their liabilities.”

Liabilities were indeed lower in September, ISSG concluded. They fell 0.2%, helping the funded ratio for corporate pension plans increase 13.9 percentage points, year to date.

The data concluded that public defined benefit plans also experienced higher than expected returns last month. A typical fund reported a 3.4% excess return over its annualized 7.5% return target and was ahead of the return target by 3.8%.

ISSG also said public plans outperformed corporate plans, foundations, and endowments, particularly due to heavy allocations to private equity—an average of 10%.

The asset class performed predominantly well, gaining a 9% return in September.

Related content: Big is Beautiful, Say PE Investors, Liabilities Sink 2012 US Public Pension Gains, How Pension Deficits Could Boost Your Portfolio

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