Passive and Fixed-Income Trump Active for UK Pensions

(June 7, 2010) — A new survey found passive and fixed-income investment managers are the big winners in 2009 among UK pension funds.

The FTfm annual survey of who is managing what for UK pension funds discovered that passive and fixed-income investment managers continue to lead in the institutional investment space, with Legal & General Investment Management holding onto the No. 1 position and BlackRock, which now incorporates last year’s second ranker Barclays Global Investors, right behind, the Financial Times reported.

The results highlight the steady success of passive managers and the decline of active investment. Only one or two active managers have been able to show notable growth — Standard Life has ascended to number four in the ranking from number 20 with £50.3 billion of pension fund assets, while Insight Investment Management has climbed to £69.4 billion from £9.6 billion, the FT reported, emphasizing the success of liability-driven investment among pension funds keen to de-risk.

Both L&G and BlackRock have added more assets than any other managers over the past year. L&G managed £102 billion (€123 billion, $148 billion) and BGI managed £95 billion five years ago. Both have more than doubled those numbers, according to the FT.

“Each successive year has seen another massive increase in [passive] assets from UK pension funds,” said Nick Hodges, business development manager for index funds at L&G, which now manages £221 billion (€267 billion, $322 billion) for UK pension funds, to the FT. “Trustees are still looking for risk reduction – including the risk of active management – and that’s a task that’s not yet complete.”

Stephen Birch, head of manager research at consultant Hymans Robertson, told the FT that it doesn’t look likely that people will start moving money back into active.